LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


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"%  -* 


?: 

v  A 


*".'".!*.' 


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*    •• 


•     «4> 


SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES 


OP  THE  LATE 


HON.  DAVID  S.  CODDINGTON, 


WITH    A 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


NEW   YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY,  443  &  445  Broadway, 

1866. 


ENTERED  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866,  by 
J.   CODDINGTON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


JOHN  F.  TROW  &  Co., 

Pr.ISTERS,    STEREOTYPERB,    AND   ELECTROTTPERS, 

60  Greene  Street,  New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH v. 

1.  THE  BURNS  CENTENNIAL  FESTIVAL — Speech  delivered  at  Mozart  Hall, 

New  York,  1859 1 

2.  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION,  delivered  at  Monticello,  Va.,  at  the  toinb 

of  Jefferson,  in  1859 9 

3.  THE  GREAT  MEETING  in  Union  Square,  N.  Y. — Speech  delivered  April 

20th,  1861 .*. 37 

4.  WAR  MEETING  in  Union  Square — Speech  delivered  in  July,  1862 ....     45 

5.  THE  MILITARY  AND  FINANCIAL  POLICY  of  the  National  Government — 

Speech  in  the  Legislature  at  Albany,  delivered  Jan.  23d,  1862. ...     49 

6.  WAR  MEETING  in  Madison  Square — Speech  delivered  April  20th,  1863.     65 

7.  MEETING  OF  THE  WAR  DEMOCRACY — Speech  delivered  at  Cooper  Insti- 

tute on  the  Presidential  Crisis,  Nov.  1,  1864 75 

8.  EULOGY  ON  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  delivered  at  Charleston,  South  Caro- 

lina, May  6th,  1865 93 

9.  ADDRESS  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT,  written  for  the  Soldier's 

Friend,  a  newspaper  in  New  York 127 

10.  LETTER  TO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  March  4th,  1865,  written  at  request 

of  the  workingmen  of  New  York  on  his  inauguration 133 

11.  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  of  1848 — Speech  delivered  before  the 

Freesoil  League  in  New  York,  Nov.  1848 141 

12.  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION,  1845,  delivered  at  Bergen  Point,  N.  J.,  at 

the  Ladies'  Fair. .  163 


BIOGRAPHY  OF  DAVID  S.  CODDINGTON. 


DAVID  SMITH  CODDINGTON,  the  author  of  the 
speeches  contained  in  this  volume,  was  born  in  the 
city  of  New  York  on  September  23d,  1823.  He 
was  the  third  son  of  the  late  Jonathan  L  Codding- 
ton,  a  prominent  merchant  of  New  York,  and  a 
lineal  descendant  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  of  the 
country. 

The  family  traces  its  lineage  clearly  back  to  the 
days  of  the  American  Colonies.  William  Codd  ing- 
ton,  the  founder  of  the  family  on  this  continent,  came 
to  America  in  1630,  having  been  appointed  by  King 
Charles  I.  of  England  a  magistrate  for  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts,  a  position  which  he  filled  for 
several  years.  On  the  accession  of  Gov.  Winthrop 
to  the  Governorship  of  the  colony,  Mr.  Coddington, 
disagreeing  with  him  in  his  policy,  to  avoid  the 
persecution  with  which  Winthrop  pursued  his  polit- 
ical enemies,  emigrated  with  others  to  what  was 
then  called  the  island  of  Aquetneck,  but  by  Judge 
Coddiugton  named  Rhode  Island.  Here  he  founded 


VI  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

a  colony  for  which  he  framed  a  government  and  a 
code  of  laws,  and  was  elected  Judge,  but  in  1640, 
the  form  of  government  was  changed,  and  the 
founder  and  Judge  of  the  colony  was  elected'  its  first 
Governor.  He  held  the  office  for  many  years, — we 
believe,  until  16*75.  He  has  come  down  to  us  in 
history  as  a  prudent,  active  Quaker,  zealous  for  his 
principles  and  earnest  in  his  advocacy  of  the  liberty 
of  conscience. 

JONATHAN  I.  CODDINGTON,  the  father  of  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch,  was  also  a  leader  among  his 
people ;  and  at  one  time  held  an  influential  position 
in  this  city  as  a  Democratic  politican.  His  career 
as  such  was  at  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  great  interest,  and  he  may  be  said  to 
have  been  a  representative  man  of  the  Jacksonian 
Democracy  of  his  day,  as  his  son  was  of  the  war 
Democracy  as  it  now  exists.  Long  before  General 
Jackson  had  begun  his  crusade  against  the  United 
States  Bank,  the  Senior  Coddington  had  given  ex- 
pression to  views  upon  the  question  of  Paper-Cur- 
rency and  its  tendency  to  dangerous  expansion 
totally  at  variance  with  those  of  a  great  majority  of 
his  fellow-merchants  and  politicians,  and  in  conson- 
ance with  those  of  the  President ;  so  that  when  the 


BIOGEAPHICAL    SKETCH.  Vll 


latter  developed  his  "  hard  money  theory  "  he  looked 
to  Mr.  Coddington  as  one  of  his  most  ardent  and 
active  supporters,  appointed  him  Postmaster  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  virtually  placed  the  devel- 
opment of  his  policy  here  under  Mr.  Coddington'a 
direction.     In  support  of  Jackson's  policy  Mr.  Cod- 
dington became  associated  with  Silas  Wright,  John 
A.  Dix,  William  L.  Marcy  and   others,  and  was 
equally  energetic  with  them  in  defending  that  admini- 
stration   against  the   execrations   of   the  sufferers 
from  paper  money  and  in  upholding  the  then  much 
ridiculed  sub-treasury  system.     He  was  also  very 
active  as  a  politician  during  the  memorable  era  of 
Van  Buren's  administration ;  and  a  leading  spirit 
among  the  Democrats  during  that  period  of  political 
disaster.     The  political  strife  which  ended  in  the 
wonderful  uprising  of  the  people  in  the  election  of 
General  Harrison  in  1840,  began  during  the  admini- 
stration of  General  Jackson,  and  was  continued  with 
great  bitterness  through  that  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.     It 
vill  be  remembered  as  one  of  remarkable  excitement. 
lhe  whole  country  was  plunged  into  violent  dis- 
cussion, and  partisan  feeling  extended  to  all  profes- 
sions and^trades  and  conditions  of  life,  high  and  low. 
The  oldest  and  the  youngest  of  the  family, — men, 


Vl'ii  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

women  and  children,  had  perforce  to  become  either 
"  Jacksonian  "  or  "  Federal " — "  infernal  whig  "  or 
"  rascally  tory."  The  amenities  of  social  intercourse 
were  often  forgotten  in  the  excitement  of  the 
absorbing  mania.  Politics  boldly  intruded  into  the 
church,  and  often  a  pastor's  success  depended  more 
upon  his  political  opinions  than  his  religious  belief 
or  pastoral  or  oratorical  ability.  The  financial 
distress  of  1837,  which  followed  the  inauguration 
of  President  Jackson's  policy,  the  unrelenting  bear- 
ing of  the  administration  towards  its  opponents,  the 
strictly  partisan  distribution  of  the  public  patron- 
ages, and  other  measures  calculated  to  incite  and 
strengthen  opposition,  resulted  in  the  great  defeat  of 
the  Democracy  in  1840.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  this 
great  political  excitement  and  revolution  that  the 
father,  growing  disgusted  with  national  politics,  re- 
tired totne  quiet  of  private  life,  or  indulged  only  in 
local  politics,  and  the  son  first  displayed  his  taste 
for  political  pursuits,  though  too  young  to  begin  the 
life  of  a  politician. 

DAVID  S.  CODDINGTON  was  then  a  boy  of  sevei/- 
teen,  but  particularly  precocious,  and  he  constancy 
evinced  an  eager  desire  to  attain  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  principles  of  the  party  with  which  nis 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  is 

• 

father  had  so  long  acted.  He  was  at  this  time  just 
from  school,  where  he  had  won  a  brilliant  reputation 
as  a  quick  scholar,  though,  while  a  student,  he  was 
more  famed  for  the  readiness  with  which  he  acquired 
knowledge  and  the  recklessness  with  which  he  defied 
school  discipline  than  for  serious  application  and  dili- 
gent scholarship.  He  was  possessed  of  a  ready/aculty 
for  acquiring  information  without  severe  study  ;  and 
was  indeed  too  delicate  in  frame  for  close  applica- 
tion, though  at  the  same  time  so  full  of  a  certain 
vitality  and  energy  that  existed  rather  in  his  brain 
than  blood,  that  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  yield 
readily  to  the  rigid  system  of  a  school.  He  had 
originally  studied  at  New  Utrecht  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, but  in  1837,  when  only  fourteen  years  of  age,  he 
had  entered  the  Freshman  class  at  Columbia  College. 
A  year  subsequently,  he  entered  Union  College  as  a 
Sophomore,  and  remained  there  two  years.  He  did 
not  carry  off  all  the  honors,  but  yielded  the  more 
solid  ones  to  more  persevering,  but  less  brilliant  com- 
petitors, while  he  contented  himself  with  the  prize 
for  elocution,  and  with  leaving  behind  him  the  remem- 
brance of  many  a  witty  saying  and  reckless  deed  of 
daring  as  his  legacy  to  the  traditions  of  the  Col- 
lege. 


Z.  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

Young  Coddington  evinced  while  at  Union 
College  a  remarkable  talent  for  elocution  and  a 
force  and  readiness  in  extemporaneous  discussion 
•which  indicated  that  in  such  occupation  the  energy 
of  his  character  found  a  congenial  pursuit.  Possess- 
ing this  taste,  the  selection  of  the  legal  profession 
was  natural  enough,  and  he  entered  with  George 
W.  Strong,  Esq.,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  the  old 
school,  in  whose  office  many  prominent  men  now  in 
practice  have  been  students.  In  this  office,  and 
afterwards  in  that  of  Slosscn  and  Schell,  likewise  a 
famed  resort  for  aspirants  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Codding- 
ton completed  his  legal  education,  varying  the 
monotony  of  professional  study  by  an  occasional 
votive  offering  to  the  muses,  or  contributing  an 
article  for  the  press,  and  at  all  times  indulging  in  an 
epigrammatic  humor  which  caused  him  to  take  a 
ludicrous  view,  not  unmixed  with  satire,  of  life,  its 
surroundings,  and  pursuits,  and  sometimes  of  his 
friends,  but  oftener  of  himself. 

In  the  year  1845,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
Mr.  Coddington  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Having 
but  a  feeble  constitution,  and  without  the  incentive 
of  necessity,  he  never  engaged  earnestly  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  but  shrank  from  contact 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.'  xi 

with  the  rougher  experience  of  a  practising  lawyer, 
preferring  to  devote  himself  to  the  more  congenial 
pursuits  of  literature  and  politics,  with  a  view  to 
giving  his  attention  when  occasion  should  offer  to 
public  affairs. 

For  some  years  no  such  opportunity  as  he  desired 
offered  itself,  and  after  the  signal  defeat  of  the 
Democrats  in  1840,  until  the  convention  of  1848, 
Mr.  Coddington  remained  quiet  and  secluded,  pur- 
suing with  great  ardor  his  studies  as  a  lawyer,  and 
fitting  himself  for  public  speaking.  On  two  or 
three  occasions  during  these  eight  years,  he  delivered 
public  orations,  but  generally  on  subjects  disconnect- 
ed with  politics ;  but  in  which  he  displayed  the 
same  forcible  epigrammatic  style  which  subsequently 
so  distinguished  him  as  an  orator.  On  July  4th, 
1845,  he  delivered  a  patriotic  address  at  a  Fair  at 
Bergen  Point,  New  Jersey.  This  early  effort  was 
characterized  by  great  originality  of  thought,  and 
that  fervent  patriotism  which  in  later  years  found 
larger  scope,  and  he  is  said  to  have  held  his  hearers 
fixed  with  a  closer  attention  than  is  ordinary  on  such 
occasions. 

The  Presidential  canvass  of  1848  profoundly 
attracted  the  attention  of  Mr.  Coddington.  The 


Xll  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

name  of  Martin  VanBuren,  the  friend  of  his  father, 
was  again  brought  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  Defeated  in  1840,  by  the  Hardcider 
and  Tippecanoe  enthusiasts  at  the  ballot-boxes,  and 
in  1844  in  the  convention  by  the  machinations  of 
Calhoun,  Van  Buren's  friends  hoped  that  at  least  in 
1848  the  people  would  have  an  opportunity  to  pass 
upon  the  merits  of  his  previous  administration,  and 
if  they  approved  of  it,  to  reelect  him  to  the  Presi- 
dency. Though  every  consideration  of  justice 
seemed  to  entitle  him  to  this  recompense  for  what 
he  had  suffered  for  the  party,  Mr.  Van  Buren  was 
again  deprived  of  the  nomination.  When  the  free 
soil  nomination  at  Utica,  on  June  22d,  was  made, 
and  which  was  reluctantly  accepted  by  Martin  Van 
Buren,  Mr.  Coddington  threw  his  whole  soul  into 
the  movement,  and  did  all  that  was  in  his  power  to 
render  it  effective.  He  fully  approved  the  senti- 
ments of  the  platform  of  the  Free  Soil  Democracy 
in  opposition  to  Slavery.  His  maiden  political 
speech  in  that  campaign  was  considered  an  evidence 
of  his  superior  qualifications  as  a  public  speaker,  and 
of  great  promise  as  a  politician.  Foreseeing  the 
determination  of  the  leaders  to  make  the  slavery 
question  the  test,  and  to  proscribe  henceforth  every 


BIOGKAPHICAL    SKETCH.  Xlll 

man  who  was  "not  wholly  committed  to  the  false 
policy  of  its  extension,  he  took  a  firm  position  in 
opposition  to  that  pliant  faction  of  the  Democracy 
at  the  North  which  yielded  everything  to  the  South. 
He  was  anxious  to  have  the  rights  of  the  South 
protected  by  every  suitable  guarantee,  and  as  long 
as  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  in  force  to  strictly 
observe  the  conditions  of  that  ancient  compact.  No 
admirer  of  slavery,  yet  never  a  political  abolitionist, 
it  was  only  when  he  became  satisfied  that  without 
freedom  to  all,  the  Union  could  not  exist,  was  he  in 
favor  of  the  destruction  of  slavery.  He  made  no 
claim  to  being  actuated  by  philanthropic  impulses 
in  favor  of  those  already  slaves,  but  acted  from 
convictions  of  his  duty  to  the  freemen  of  the  North. 
He  charged  that  abolitionism  was  not  the  cause  of 
the  late  rebellion,  but  that  in  the  history  of  the 
platforms,  and  of  the  men  placed  in  power  by  the 
Democratic  party  from  1844  to  1860,  could  be 
found  material  enough  to  indicate  how  the  flames 
of  discontent  were  fanned  into  the  fire  of  rebellion 
which  precipitated  the  great  crisis  of  1861  upon  the 
country.  He  dated  the  commencement  of  the  civil 
war  not  to  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  but  to  the 
manipulations  of  the  Kansas  Question  by  Mr.  Pierce 


XIV  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

and  Mr.  Buchanan  and  their  advisers,  and  believed 
that  the  blood  spilled  in  that  territory  was  the 
opening  sacrifice  in  the  great  struggle.  A  Demo- 
crat by  birth  and  by  conviction,  with  nothing  in 
common  with  abolitionism  until  the  existence  of  the 
government  was  assailed,  and  then  still  a  Democrat, 
but  subordinating  party  obligation  to  his  duty  to 
the  country,  choosing  rather  to  support  an  admini- 
stration he  had  no  hand  in  placing  in  power  to  the 
greater  evils  of  anarchy  and  disunion,  he  was  willing 
to  act  with  any  party  which  was  earnest  in  restor- 
ing the  integrity  of  the  Union,  obedience  to  its  laws 
and  respect  for  its  flag. 

The  campaign  of  1848  resulted  in  the  defeat  of 
the  Democrats.  The  vote  of  that  party  in  the  State 
of  New  York  was  divided  between  Van  Buren  and 
Cass,  and  hence  the  Whigs  carried  the  State  for 
General  Taylor.  The  Free  Soil  Democrats  were 
henceforth  out  of  the  pale  of  the  party,  and  might 
never  more  hope  to  be  taken  back  again.  After 
this  campaign,  Mr.  Coddington  as  a  Freesoiler  could 
not  expect  to  be  considered  as  any  longer  available 
as  a  politician  in  the  ranks  of  the  Democratic  party, 
the  majority  of  which  had  followed  the  beck  of 
CalhouD,  and  the  leadership  of  Cass,  leaving  the 


BIOGKAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XV 

Freesoilers  in  a  hopeless  minority.  Mr.  Coddington 
was  temporarily  proscribed  in  common  with  all  the 
principal  Freesoilers,  and  with  them  was  left  by  the 
Democratic  leaders  to  enjoy  several  years  of  retire- 
ment ;  much  of  which  he  devoted  to  reading  and  to 
study.  This  course  of  study  only  served  to 
strengthen  the  political  convictions  which  he  had 
inherited  from  his  father,  and  the  correctness  of 
which  his  own  experience  had  confirmed.  Mean- 
time, he  satisfied  himself  with  proclaiming  in  1859 
his  opposition  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution  and 
scheme ;  and  interested  himself  by  frequent  addresses 
to  the  people  in  patriotic  orations,  but  he  seldom 
touched  upon  partisan  subjects.  Among  the  most 
interesting  of  these  efforts  was  his  address,  published 
elsewhere,  at  the  Burns  Centennial  Festival  of  1859, 
in  New  York.  This  address  was  said  by  prominent 
Journals  at  the  time  to  have  been  most  powerful 
and  beautiful,  and  is  described  by  them  as  the 
"feature  of  the  day."  It  was  a  brilliant  and 
scholarly  effort,  showing  a  most  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  writings  of  the  Poet,  abounding  in  incident, 
anecdote  and  metaphor,  and  so  excited  the  enthu- 
siasm of  his  Celtic  auditors  that  they  greeted  him 
with  rounds  of  applause  more  enthusiastic  than  those 


XVI  BIOGKAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

by  which  orators  are  generally  rewarded  even  at  a 
festive  gathering.  Another  of  Mr.  Coddington's 
most  interesting  efforts  was  delivered  on  the  fourth 
of  July,  1859,  being  an  oration  at  the  grave  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  at  Monticello,  Virginia.  This 
oration,  which  is  also  published  in  full  in  this 
volume,  was  delivered  when  the  excitement  which 
preceded  the  Presidential  elections  of  1860  had 
already  begun  to  be  felt  in  Virginia ;  and  the  speaker 
took  care  to  express  how  foreign  and  repulsive  to 
him  was  the  idea  of  national  estrangement,  and  how 
kindly  were  the  sentiments  then  as  now  entertained 
by  the  people  of  the  Empire  State,  and  the  North 
generally,  for  those  of  the  old  Dominion.  These 
efforts  did  not  serve,  however,  to  bring  him  prom- 
inently forward  in  public  life,  did  not  particularly 
endear  him  to  the  public  heart,  as  he  was  destined 
to  become.  It  was  not  until  his  party,  amidst  the 
excitement  of  April,  1861,  became  the  great  War 
Democracy  that  he  again  appeared  in  politics. 
Then  Mr.  Coddington,  born  a  Jackson  Democrat, 
reared  in  the  faith  of  Van  Buren,  successively  a 
Freesoil  Democrat  in  1848,  and  an  anti-Lecompton 
Democrat  in  1859,  adhering  to  his  life-long  princi- 
ples and  his  party,  proclaimed  himself,  before  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XVH 

echoes  of  the  guns  of  Suinter  had  died  away,  as  an 
out  and  out  war  Democrat. 

When  the  Southern  States  were  precipitated  into 

armed  resistance  to  the  Government  by  designing 

politicians,   and  the    thunder  of   cannon    against 

Fort  Suinter  woke  the  slumbering  North  to  the 

reality  of  long-threatened  disunion,  the  people  found 

themselves  unarmed  and  unprepared  for  the  mighty 

struggle   for  national    existence   which   was  upon 

them.     Their  leaders  had  slumbered  or  betrayed 

their  trust — no  man  seemed  equal  to  acting  in  this 

great  emergency,  and  the  capitol  was  cut  off  from 

communications  with  the   greater  portion   of  the 

country.   Early  in  April,  1 8 6 1 ,  the  people  assembled 

in  overwhelming  masses  in  Union  Square  to  take 

counsel  together,  and  discuss  this  terrible  calamity, 

and  to  endeavor  to  disentangle  themselves  from  the 

meshes  of  the  network  of  conspiracy  in  which  they 

had  become  involved.     This  was  the  moment  in  the 

life  of  David  S.  Coddington  in  which  his  prompt 

action  in  the  limited  field  which  was  open  to  him, 

will  tend  most  to  make  his  memory  dear  to  those 

who  knew  him.    An  old-school  Democrat,  for  years 

in  opposition  to  the  party  which  had  just  obtained 

the  power,  and  which  had  within  a  few  days-  past 


XV111  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

become  responsible  for  the  administration  of  the 
government,  there  was  no  reason  why  as  a  politician 
he  should  become  a  leader  in  their  councils.  Policy 
would  have  dictated  to  a  less  patriotic  opponent,  as 
it  did  indeed  to  many  of  his  party,  to  leave  the 
Republicans  to  act  for  themselves,  and  await  the 
opportunities  to  take  advantage  of  their  errors. 
But  Mr.  Coddington  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  in 
throwing  himself  heartily  and  zealously  in  support 
of  an  administration  which  at  the  ballot-box  he  had 
opposed,  but  which  now  identified  itself  with  the 
life  of  the  nation,  and  boldly  and  openly  joined 
hands  with  it  as  a  northern  war  democrat  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  democracy  of  the  South  who  had  taken 
up  arms  for  the  nation's  overthrow.  On  the  19th 
of  April,  in  a  masterly  appeal  to  the  people  to  rouse 
up  and  exert  themselves  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  he  astonished  even  those  who  knew  him  best 
by  his  singularly  classic  and  eloquent  remarks, 
abounding  in  condensed  sarcasm  and  in  originality 
and  terseness  of  thought.  He  had  plead  at  the  tomb 
of  Jefferson  for  the  perpetuation  by  arts  of  peace  of 
a  Union  which  its  inmate  had  done  so  much  to 
create ;  now  he  argued  for  the  preservation  by  force 
of  arms  of  that  Union  assailed  by  the  countrymen 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  XIX 

of  Jefferson,  and  threatened  to  be  rent  asunder  by 
the  appliances  of  war. 

The  course  of  Mr.  Coddington  as  a  war  democrat 
was  consistent  and  active  to  the  last.  He  aided  in 
every  way  to  bring  the  struggle  to  a  successful, con- 
clusion, and  though  mindful  of  the  frequent  mistakes 
of  the  party  in  power,  regarded  them  as  secondary 
to  the  great  object  of  preserving  the  integrity  of 
the  nation.  Had  his  physical  organization  equalled 
his  moral  courage  and  patriotism,  he  would  have 
been  among  the  first  to  take  the  field  in  a  cause  in 
whose  success  his  whole  soul  was  enlisted. 

In  the  fall  of  1861,  Mr.  Coddington  was  elected 
on  the  Democratic  ticket  a  member  of  the  State 
Assembly  from  the  city  of  New  York.  Although 
nominated  as  a  partisan,  he  was  largely  supported 
by  good  men  of  all  parties.  He  devoted  himself 
with  untiring  industry  to  the  interest  of  the  city, 
and  worked  with  a  zeal  and  energy  little  in  accord- 
ance with  his  former  inactive  life  as  a  student,  faith- 
fully discharging  his  duties  both  as  a  member  in  the 
House,  and  of  important  committees.  He  at  once 
took  position  as  a  skilful  and  able  debater,  and 
when  he  spoke,  he  commanded  that  attention  which 
in  large  deliberative  bodies  is  the  highest  evidence 


XX  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

of   the   appreciation   of   the  speaker  by  his   col- 
leagues. 

As  a  representative  in  the  State  Legislature  his 
most  effective  speech  was  delivered  on  a  resolution 
introduced  for  the  purpose  of  requesting  the  Gen- 
eral Government  to  accelerate  the  movements  of  the 
army.  While  sketching  the  progress  of  events,  and 
holding  up  to  ridicule  the  cry  of  impatient  home- 
guards  men  and  tacticians  of  the  "  on  to  Richmond  " 
school,  he  displayed  his  sympathies  for  the  cause  of 
the  country,  and  his  confidence  in  its  triumph,  by  re- 
marks which  called  forth  the  highest  commendations 
of  the  Press,  the  vigorous  applause  of  the  galleries, 
and  the  congratulations  of  the  members.  The  New 
York  Times  said  of  this  speech : 

"  Its  aim  was  to  discourage  public  impatience  and  inspire 
confidence  in  the  national  authorities  who  have  the  matter  in 
charge.  It  was  eminently  the  production  of  a  scholar,  clear 
forcible  and  compact  in  style,  and  marked  with  great  justness 
of  thought  and  vigor  of  expression." 

An  Albany  paper  said : 

"  Everybody  expected  a  brilliant  display,  and  nobody  was 
disappointed ;  Mr.  Coddington  made  a  splendid  speech  ap- 
proving the  course  of  the  government,  and  in  favor  of  stand- 
ing by  the  Union.  There  was  an  intensity  about  his  manner 
that  fastened  the  attention  of  the  house." 

The  career  of  Mr.  Coddington  as  a  member  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  XXI 

the  Legislature,  although  so  highly  creditable  to 
himself  and  beneficial  to  the  city  and  State,  ended 
with  one  term ;  he  did  not  seek  a  re-nomination. 

As  a  citizen,  he  continued  active  in  his  exertions 
for  the  support  of  the  Government,  frequently  ad- 
dressing assemblages  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  rarely 
omitting  an  opportunity  to  aid  in  the  work  of 
restoring  the  Union.  When  the  Presidential  nomina- 
tions were  made  in  1864,  Mr.  Coddington  could  not 
find  it  consistent  with  his  views  of  Democracy  to 
accept  the  Chicago  Platform  as  the  political  text 
for  one  who  loved  his  country.  He  tersely  express- 
ed his  opinion  of  that  programme  in  a  letter  to  the 
committee  of  the  great  Union  Mass  Meeting  to  be 
held  in  New  York,  on  the  27th  of  September,  and 
which  remarkable  document  is  as  follows : 

NEW  YOKK,  Tuesday,  Sept.  27th,  1864. 

GENTLEMEN  :  Your  invitation  to  speak  to-night  is  received. 
A  severe  cold  will  prevent  me. 

But  neither  cold  nor  heat  can  freeze  or  melt  out  of  this 
country  the  belief  that  the  Chicago  Convention  has  left  a 
Democrat  no  choice  between  Jefferson  Davis,  with  all  his 
crimes,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  with  all  his  faults. 

The  Vallandigham  platform  is  merely  an  attempt  of  the 
Richmond  authorities  to  run  the  blockade  of  Northern  ballot- 
boxes,  Montgomery  Constitution  in  hand.  True,  the  Union 
flag  floats  from  the  first  section  ;  so  it  does  from  the  Florida 
and  Tallahassee,  until  you  get  near  enough  for  them  to  hoist 


XX11  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

the  Confederate  rag  and  scuttle  the  Union  ship,  while  we, 
robbed  of  our  compasses  and  stripped  of  our  national  consist- 
ency, are  to  be  landed  upon  some  bleak  dogma  of  egotistical 
States'  Rights  and  universal  anarchy! 

Call  Abraham  Lincoln  a  joker !  Why,  the  Chicago  party 
are  trying  to  make  this  Avar  the  ghastliest  joke  of  the  continent 
or  the  century.  Have  we  gone  to  school  to  a  million  of  bay- 
onets and  learned  nothing  ?  Have  we  marched  a  million  of 
men  a  thousand  miles  to  stand  still  ?  Are  we  spending  four 
millions  a  day  merely  to  buy  back  the  old  wrangle  about 
Slavery? — to  buy  back  another  Brooks's  murderous  cane; 
another  Buchanan's  Lecompton  crime,  greater  than  all  the 
Lincoln  lap&us  constitutionis  f  The  Crittenden  Amendment 
was  very  well  to  prevent  war ;  but  are  we  to  be  fought  four 
years,  despoiled  of  our  means,  called  foreigners,  hunted  on 
every  sea  and  shore,  and  bury  five  hundred  thousand  brothers, 
to  give  them  all  they  asked  in  the  past,  and  no  security  for  all 
they  will  demand,  on  that  very  account,  in  the  future  ?  They 
will  say :  "  We  plunged  you  vital  deep  in  debt,  we  helped  you 
to  innumerable  funerals ;  but  we  never  buried  a  single  demand. 
While  your  armies  have  advanced,  your  principles  have  re- 
treated ;  and,  so  long  as  your  victories  only  mean  concessions 
to  us,  war  has  no  terrors  and  .peace  no  shame  in  Dixie."  Will 
the  red  crisis  stand  this — will  greenbacks  support  it  ?  Every 
five-twenty  bond  is  a  stump  speech  for  Lincoln ;  every  dollar 
greenback  a  campaign  tract  distributed  among  a  warned  and 
consuming  community,  cautioning  them  how  they  trifle  with 
the  dead  and  the  debt  of  this  war. 

Hoping  that  the  ballot-box  will  prove  the  sentry-box  of 
the  national  honor, 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  yours, 

DAVID  S.  CODDINGTOX. 

General  McClellan  did  not  receive  the  full  vote 
of  the  Democracy,  for  many  democrats  had  the  same 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XX111 

convictions  as  those  expressed  by  Mr.  Codding- 
ton.  For  the  support  of  a  large  majority  of  those 
who  did  vote  for  him,  McClellan  was  indebted  to 
his  own  letter,  and  not  to,  but  really  in  despite  of, 
the  platform  on  which  he  was  nominated.  During 
this  campaign  in  November,  1864,  Mr.  Coddington 
addressed  a  great  gathering  of  the  war  Democracy 
at  the  Cooper's  Institute  strongly  supporting  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  This 
memorable  effort  of  the  orator,  was  pronounced  at 
the  time  to  be  one  of  the  sharpest,  clearest  and  most 
powerful  indictments  ever  framed  against  a  party 
whose  leaders  had  proven  false  to  its  principles 
as  well  as  to  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  country. 
As  a  vivid,  spirited  picture  of  the  Democratic  party 
of  that  time,  and  its  attitude  this  speech  is  unequalled. 

On  the  second  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln, 
Mr.  Coddington  prepared  a  letter  to  him  at  the 
request  of  the  working  men  of  the  city  of  New  York 
replete  with  patriotic  sentiments.  His  next  effort 
was  destined  to  be  the  oration  in  memory  of  the 
martyred  president. 

Soon  after  the  occupation  of  Charleston  by  the 
Government,  Mr.  Coddington  visited  that  city  for 
the  benefit  of  his  health.  While  there  the  news  of 


XXIV  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

the  assassination  of  the  President  was  received,  and 
at  the  request  of  the  military  authorities  and  soldiers 
of  that  Department,  he  delivered  a  Eulogy  in  the 
citadel  square  church.  This  oration  delivered  in 
the  cradle  of  the  Rebellion  amidst  the  ruins  it  had 
caused,  in  memory  of  its  most  illustrious  victim  was 
the  last  and  greatest  of  Mr.  Coddington's  addresses. 
Always  of  a  feeble  constitution,  with  failing  health, 
and  days  already  numbered,  it  will  be  seen  in  the 
perusal  of  this  address  that  the  fire  of  his  patriotism 
burned  brightly  to  the  last,  and  that  this  final  effort 
of  his  original  genius  is  worthy  of  perpetuation  as 
not  the  least  effective  shell  exploded  in  the  citadel 
of  treason. 

On  his  return  to  the  North  in  June,  1865,  his 
growing  reputation  as  an  orator  was  evidenced  by 
the  large  number  of  invitations  which  he  received 
to  address  the  people  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, on  the  ensuing  fourth  of  July,  but  his  last  oration 
had  been  delivered.  He  seemed  to  feel  that  his 
brief  period  of  activity  was  nearly  over ;  and  declin- 
ing to  accept  any  of  the  many  invitations  on  account 
of  his  rapidly  failing  health,  he  retired  to  his 
favorite  resort  at  Saratoga  Springs  to  pass  the 
summer.  His  visit  there  in  1865  will  be  rernem- 


BIOGKAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XXV 

bered  by  hundreds  of  the  habitues  of  the  place. 
He  was  unusually  lively  in  his  manner  despite  his 
illness,  and  brilliant  and  witty  in  his  conversation 
to  a  degree  which  caused  many  of  his  friends  to  fear 
that  it  was  the  increased,  but  flickering  brilliancy  of 
the  dying  lamp.  This  fear  was  too  well  founded  ; 
and  on  the  morning  of  September  2d,  while  at  Sara- 
toga, Mr.  Coddington  very  suddenly,  but  evidently 
not  unexpectedly,  began  to  fail,  and  shortly  after 
died  calmly,  and  without  a  struggle.  The  news  of 
his  decease  came  with  painful  suddenness  to  a  large 
circle  of  his  friends,  and  was  the  subject  of  general 
notice,  and  profound  expressions  of  regret  on  the 
part  of  the  press  and  the  people. 

David  S.  Coddington  was  in  very  many  respects 
a  remarkable  man :  and  died  too  soon  for  the  coun- 
try and  his  own  reputation.  Nature  had  enriched 
hia  mind  at  the  expense  of  his  body.  He  was  one 
of  those  peculiar  persons  seldom  met  with  whose 
energy  is  of  the  brain  not  of  tne  blood,  and  who  go 
down  to  posterity  under  the  distinctive  classification 
of  "  men  of  genius.*' .  He  was  one  of  those  characters 
described  by  Dryden  as : 

"  A  fiery  soul,  which,  working  out  its  way, 

Fretted  the  pigmy  body  to  decay 

And  o'erinformed  the  tenement  of  clay." 


XXVI  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

Without  an  ostentatious  display  of  knowledge 
received  from  books,  he  allowed  the  ripe  fruit  which 
he  had  stored  away  in  his  years  of  study  to  mingle 
with  the  experience  he  had  derived  from  a  life  not 
passed  in  viewing  all  things  as  golden.  A  physical 
infirmity  with  which  he  had  been  afflicted  from 
youth  had  imperceptibly  its  effect  upon  his  temper- 
ament, and  while  he  was  as  sensitive  as  Byron,  he 
was  not  as  cynical.  Had  he  possessed  the  bodily 
vigor  to  have  grappled  with  the  labor,  he  would 
have  won  a  splendid  position  in  any  path  of  life 
which  he  might  have  chosen  as  congenial,  for  he 
possessed  the  mind  to  grapple  with  problems  of 
every  character,  and  of  the  deepest  intricacy.  He 
was  a  man  in  whom  the  intuitive  was  strongly 
developed;  he  was  always  right  in  his  judgment 
from  being  right  in  his  principle,  and  could  do  no 
wrong,  because  he  so  strongly  and  deeply  loved 
truth  and  justice.  His  first  judgment  on  great 
questions  was  his  best,  because  prompted  by  this 
intuitive  love  of  the  right ;  and  nothing  could 
reason  or  lead  him  away  from  the  convictions 
thus  instantaneously  formed.  His  mind  was  of 
that  kind  that  quickly  and  clearly  perceives  the 
salient  points  of  a  question,  and  he  was  a  man  who 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XXVU 

as    quickly    acted    upon    impressions     thus     con- 
ceived. 

In  private  life,  lie  was  remarkable  and  rnucli 
appreciated  for  his  social  and  conversational  powers ; 
and  among  his  intimate  acquaintances,  he  shone  with 
mpre  brilliancy  than  he  appeared  to  the  public. 
He  was  very  quick  and  brilliant  at  repartee,  easy 
and  fluent  of  language,  unusually  forcible  and  ex- 
ceedingly epigrammatic  in  his  construction  of  his 
sentences,  and  at  all  times  witty ;  and  these  qualities 
made  his  society  much  sought  after.  Few  men  have 
been  more  courted  and  admired  in  society  than  Mr. 
Coddington,  and  few  possessed  greater  qualifications 
for  instructing  or  pleasing  a  social  circle.  But  he 
was  not  merely  admired  in  society  ;  David  S.  Cod- 
dington was  loved  in  his  social  circle  even  more 
than  he  was  admired.  A  gentle,  enthusiastic  spirit, 
always  earnest  and  often  impetuous  in  his  enthusi- 
asm, of  great  generosity,  kindness  and  affability, 
very  tender  in  his  manner,  and  affectionate  in  his 
disposition,  he  drew  others  towards  him  in  sympathy 
and  gentleness,  and  was  even  more  lovable  than 
fascinating.  His  wit  was  playful,  had  nothing  of 
the  bitter  in  its  composition,  and  nobody  feared  while 
all  laughed  at  his  satire.  His  repartee  was  so  good 


XXV111  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

humored  and  so  kindly  uttered  that  it  gave  no  pain. 
He  made  himself  more  frequently  than  others  his 
object  of  ridicule,  and  the  shafts  of  his  satire  spent 
themselves  either  on  himself  or  such  generalities  as 
left  his  companions  no  opportunity  or  occasion  to 
construe  aught  offensive  in  them.  With  all  his 
bodily  infirmity,  he  was  still  full  of  fun  and  frolic, 
and  with  younger  persons  and  children  occasionally 
indulged  in  playful  romps,  and  innocent  games.  He 
rarely  thought  of  himself,  was  disinterested  in  his 

frequent   efforts   for   others,  and   the   charity  and 

• 

generosity  of  his  character  were  not  less  noticeable 
than  the  qualities  of  his  mind.  He  has  left  behind 
him  many  an  anecdote,  letter,  bon  mot  and  pleasan- 
try illustrative  of  these  qualities,  many  of  which 
will  be  recalled  by  this  allusion  to  the  recollection 
of  his  friends,  but  few  of  which  were  preserved  by 
him.  In  his  younger  days  he  composed  a  great 
deal  of  poetry,  wrote  many  little  epigrams,  sketches 
and  letters  for  publication,  and  for  the  persual  of 
his  friends  and  acquaintances,  but  he  seldom  kept 
copies  of  them.  The  methodical  was  very  little 
developed  in  his  temperament,  and  he  was  rather 
careless  in  preserving  his  papers,  so  that  many  of 
them  are  lost,  but  what  remains  to  us  of  his  poetic 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XXIX 

and  other  contributions  to  the  press  display  the 
same  peculiar  vigorous  and  epigrammatic  style  which 
is  so  remarkable  in  his  speeches  herewith  pub- 
lished. 

Mr.  Coddington's  reputation  with  the  general 
public  must  depend  on  his  achievements  as  an 
orator ;  for  in  this  capacity  chiefly  was  he  known  to 
the  people.  It  is  a  little  difficult  to  decide  to  what 
class  his  style  of  oratory  belongs,  whether  to  the 
demonstrative,  deliberative  or  argumentative  (Judi- 
cial) of  the  ancients,  or  that  of  the  Senate,  the  bar, 
the  pulpit  or  the  platform  style  of  modern  oratory. 
His  style  was  very  peculiar,  and  there  is  no  modern 
orator  whom  he  can  be  said  to  have  imitated,  for  in 
thought  and  matter  and  manner,  he-  was  most 
original.  He  was  not  argumentative.  His  speeches 
are  wonderfully  compact,  terse  and  elegant  combina- 
tions of  facts  hurled  at  an  audience  in  successive 
explosions  of  most  effective  eloquence.  His  orations 
are  grand  pyrotechnic  displays  of  eloquence  or 
grand  artillery  bombardments,  with  solid  facts  for 
missiles.  His  language  has  the  effect  of  the  best 
stump  oratory  and  the  elegance  of  the  most  classic 
Senatorial  literature.  The  most  effective  stump 
orator  of  this  country,  Tom  Corwin,  did  not  win 


XXX  BIOGKAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

greater  triumphs  in  the  Log-cabin  campaign  in  1840, 
or  more  thoroughly  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
political  audience  than  did  Mr.  Coddington  with  his 
patriotic  audiences  of  1861.  But  the  occasional 
elegant  flights'  in  which  Corwin  indulged  pervaded 
the  whole  oration  of  Mr.  Coddington  ;  and  the  most 
studied  and  classical  orations  of  the  Senate  are  not 
superior  for  beauty  of  finish. 

Mr.  Coddington — as  an  eminent  statesman  once 
declared — ought  to  have  been  one  of  the  first  orators 
of  the  country.  Without  a  commanding  presence, 
he  possessed  that  graceful  gesticulation  so  well 
becoming  the  orator.  He  had  a  clear,  well  modu- 
lated voice  which  imparted  distinctness  to  the  utter- 
ance of  ideas  which  in  terseness  and  originality,  in 
boldness  and  trenchant  sarcasm  have  rarely  been 
surpassed  by  any  public  speaker  of  the  day.  In 
debate  he  wielded  his  facts  with  great  force  and 
precision  unaccompanied  by  that  studied  ornateness 
so  often  characteristic  of  the  student  and  man  of 
letters. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  great  speech  in  November, 
1864,  some  criticisms  appeared  in  the  daily  papers 
of  New  York  which  admirably  illustrated  his  style 
of  oratory.  The  Herald,  after  alluding  to  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  XXXI 


speeches  of  General  Dix,  Judge  Pierrepont  and 
General  Sickles,  said,  "  but  the  gem  of  the  occasion 
was  the  splendid  speech  of  Mr.  Coddington  ...  we 
have  heard  nothing  from  the  stump  for  many  years 
superior  to  his  admirable  oration.  During  this 
canvass,  there  has  been  no  speech  that  can  at  all 
compare  with  it  either  in  matter  or  manner.  Its 
style  is  terse,  vigorous,  pungent  and  epigrammatic. 
Its  logic  is  unexceptionable.  Its  sharp,  attic  wit, 
bitter  satire  and  vehement  invective  are  capitally 
relieved  by  most  appropriate  poetical  imagery  and 
by  passages  of  classical  eloquence.  In  contrast  with  - 
this  bright,  fresh,  sparkling,  impassioned  address 
the  labored  and  elaborate  efforts  of  others  appear 
dull  and  tedious  ...  we  can  draw  no  comparison 
between  them  and  the  apt,  pithy,  telling  speech  of 
Mr.  Coddington,  who  exhibits  many  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  highest  school  of  oratory.  Indeed  his 
keen,  piercing  style  and  the  nervous  energy  of  his 
statements  and  illustrations  remind  us  of  John 
Randolph,  while  his  speech  is  as  brief,  comprehen- 
sive and  compact  as  those  of  Calhoun."  The  New 
York  Times  speaking  of  it  says :  "  Passages  of  it 
are  as  full  of  fervid  eloquence  as  anything  in  the 
speeches  of  Eufus  Choate,  who  was  the  greatest 


XXX11  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

master  this  country  has  ever  seen  of  his  rich  and 
peculiar  style  of  oratory." 

Had  David  S.  Coddington  possessed  more  robust 
health,  he  would  have  taken  a  position  in  the  first 
rank  of  statesmen.  He  possessed  a  clear  head,  a 
keen  wit  and  a  silvery  voice  wherewith  to  impart 
his  vivid  conceptions  to  his  hearers,  with  great 
culture  and  application,  and  a  fund  of  varied  know- 
ledge and  information,  which  readily  supplied 
material  for  argument  or  illustration.  As  a  lawyer 
he  would  probably  have  gained  with  little  exertion, 
an  eminent  position  as  an  advocate.  As  a  friend, 
he  was  devoted  and  reliable,  of  a  kind  and  gentle 
heart,  and  a  man  of  the  strictest  honor  in  his  deal- 
ings, valuing  his  promise  as  a  sacred  pledge.  Had 
jie  lived  his  friends  looked  confidently  forward  to 
the  period  when  he  should  once  more  be  called  to 
serve  his  country  in  some  capacity  where  his 
abilities  would  find  proper  scope.  As  he  died  so 
early,  they  are  consoled  to  find  that  he  achieved  so 
much  in  the  sphere  open  for  his  action,  and  left  such 
memorials  of  his  patriotism  and  genius  as  those 
which  this  sketch  is  intended  to  preface. 


THE 


BURNS  CENTENARY  FESTIVAL. 


SPEECH  AT  MOZART  HALL, 

JANUARY  25TH,  1859. 


MK.  PRESIDENT: 


is  it,  sir,  that  the  tear  and  the  goblet  are 
sparkling  to-night  on  two  hemispheres  by  moorland, 
highland,  and  street-side  ? 

"Why  is  it  that  the  scattered  clans,  wherever  they 
roam  and  whoever  they  serve,  know  but  one  chieftain 
to-night,  as  they  rally  around  these  far-apart  banquets 
of  joy  and  devotion,  where  the  spell  of  one  sacred  name, 
one  holy  hour  is  upon  us  all  ;  so  thoughtful,  so  grateful, 
so  communicative,  have  we  not  come  to  pour  out  our 
souls  for  the  soul  which  Robert  Burns  has  given  us,  for 
the  sweet  strength  he  has  added  to  whatever  grace  of 
feeling  we  possess  ? 

Is  he  not  the  only  man  in   all   Scotland,  be  he  a 

"Wallace,  Bruce,  or  Stuart  —  is  he  not  the  only  poet  in  all 

Christendom,  though  he  were  Dante,  Milton,  or  Shake- 

speare —  who  can  command    these    continuous   jubilant 

1 


2  ADDRESS  AT 

birth-nights — these  clasped  hands,  these  leaping  pulses, 
those  rich  old  Scottish  songs,  so  fragrant  with  truth  and 
fellowship,  and  which  have  gushed  forth  so  spontaneously, 
so  convivially,  anniversary  after  anniversary,  until  they 
have  at  last  reached  this  sublime  epoch  of  remembrance, 
this  centennial  climax  of  appreciation  which  binds  the 
hundredth  year  around  the  brow  of  his  beauty  and  his 
immortality  ? 

It  is  not  because  Robert  Burns  has  added  a  few 
Scotch  rhymes  to  English  literature,  that  this  humble 
tax-gatherer  levies  so  deeply  upon  our  tears,  our  memo- 
ries and  our  love — it  is  not  merely  because  a  great  poet 
has  turned  all  the  rivers  and  the  flowers,  the  duties  and 
the  dreams  of  his  country  into  harmonious  and  imperisha- 
ble verses,  that  you  have  summoned  around  you  here 
to-night  the  eminent  and  the  cultivated  of  this  land  to 
assist  us  in  saying  classically  what  we  all  feel  so  impul- 
sively ;  but  it  is  because  he  has  touched  the  great  com- 
mon heart  by  his  identity  with  the  common  lot,  through 
the  whole  varied  range  of  high  intellect,  profound  feeling, 
and  lowly  experience;  because  his  muse  has  dropped  a 
rose  in  every  withered  breast,  and  charmed  the  rough 
hand,  the  breaking  heart,  into  graceful  harmony  with  the 
necessity  of  their  condition — shedding  his  songs,  as 
patriots  shed  their  blood,  for  the  glory  and  honor  of  his 
country,  the  peace  and  purity  of  its  homes. 

"With  all  his  faults,  (and  they  were  many,)  with  all  his 
virtues,  (and  they  were  more,)  stranger  and  native,  classic 
and  rustic,  do  we  not  all  see  the  angel  of  a  loving  human- 
ity walking  in  the  flames  of  his  genius,  and  lighting  up 
the  vast  domain  of  Anglo-Saxon  thought  and  feeling  with 
new  hope  and  power,  ever  invoking  national  unity,  indi- 
vidual sympathy,  and  universal  brotherhood  ? 

"We   know  that   Campbell    is   a  deathless    songster. 


THE   BURNS   FESTIVAL.  3 

Ilolienlinden,  though  a  German  battle,  still  reddens  with 
the  fire  and  shudders  with  the  thunder  of  Scottish  genius. 

TVe  know  that  the  poetry  of  Scott  will  ring  along  the 
centuries  chivalrously  and  heroically  immortal.  Lord 
Marmion,  though  slain  in  story,  still  lives  in  the  memory 
of  it,  and  the  young  Lochinvar,  if  he  got  away  from  the 
Graeme  and  the  Netherby  clans,  he  cannot  escape  us. 
Yet  we  know,  too,  that  the  genius  of  these  poets,  without 
being  any  more  comprehensive  than  that  of  Burns,  is  less 
identified  with  the  local  life  and  native  language  of  their 
country.  They  have  said  fine  things  of  Scotland,  and 
Scotland  is  both  proud  and  grateful,  but  they  have  sung 
the  twin  tale  of  her  glory  and  her  sadness,  more  as 
admiring  foreigners  than  loving  natives.  For  them  the 
laurel  crown,  and  the  cordial  hand; — but  the  quivering 
lip,  the  heaving  breast,  and  the  embracing  arm, — these, 
these, — are  thine  only,  oh,  bard  of  Ayrshire ! 

Every  vicissitude  of  fortune  or  temperament  in  Burns 
finds  a  congenial  mouthpiece.  If  a  Scotsman  falls  in 
love,  he  sends  Burns  to  do  the  courting,  and  "  Mary  in 
Heaven  "  comes  down  and  helps  him  love  Nelly  in  Dum- 
barton. If  a  Scotchman  is  wronged,  he  seizes  a  sonnet 
rather  than  a  musket  to  vindicate  himself.  Many  a 
skeptic  has  turned  from  the  confusing  jargon  of  the 
churches  to  find  himself,  with  a  few  helpful  verses  of 
Burns,  lifted  up  into  the  peaceful  regions  of  a  pure  and 
permanent  trust.  How  calmly  does  the  "  Cotter's  Satur- 
day Night"  glide  us  into  the  Sabbath  morn,  of  a  holy 
reverence  for  its  pictures  of  piety  and  domestic  virtue ! 
So  deeply,  too,  is  the  genius  of  Burns  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  patriotism  in  his  war  song  of  "  Scots  wha  hae," 
that  had  he  lived  at  the  battle  of  Bannockburn,  it  is 
impossible  to  say  who  would  have  contributed  most  to  the 
deliverance  of  the  country,  Bruce  with  his  impetuous 


4  ADDRESS   AT 

charge  of  claymores,  or  Burns  with  his  vigorous  thrust  of 
sentences.  One  thing  is  certain,  he  was  the  first  Scotch- 
man in  modern  history,  who  successfully  invaded  England 
with  his  native  dialect.  Not  like  Charles  Edward,  to 
retreat  when  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  capital,  but 
pushing  on  to  London,  captured  the  King  and  the  whole 
royal  family  with  the  magic  of  his  Gaelic  inspirations. 

Earl  Grey  is  said  to  have  remarked  that  his  persever- 
ing efforts  •  in  behalf  of  electoral  reform  had  been  much 
stimulated  by  the  reading  of  Burns.  Is  he  not  the  true 
legislator,  who  so  shapes  the  heart  of  statesmanship  ? 

What  versatility  of  genius,  too !  With  all  his  gravity, 
how  he  revelled  in  the  ludicrous!  The  Duchess  of 
Devonshire  is  said  to  have  been  cured  of  an  ague  by 
laughing  over  Tarn  O'Shanter.  Tarn  reeled  so  comically 
into  the  presence  of  her  Grace  as  to  bring  on  a  princely 
perspiration  that  broke  the  fever.  Thus,  in  one  breath  is 
he  shaking  thrones  with  his  appeals  to  freedom,  and  in 
the  next,  shaking  sides  with  his  attacks  on  our  risibilities. 

There  are  those  who  decry  poetry  as  being  illusive 
and  unpractical,  and  in  the  same  breath  employ  it  to 
strengthen  their  practicality.  The  clerk  comes  late  to  his 
counting  room,  and  the  practical  merchant  particularly 
reminds  him  that  "  the  early  bird  gathers  the  worm ; "  or 
perhaps  he  would  change  his  business,  again  the  practical 
man  is  ready  with  the  poetical  reproof  that  "  the  rolling 
stone  gathers  no  moss." 

Poetry,  next  to  Christianity,  is  the  richest  gift  of  God 
to  man.  All  Art,  all  Science,  the  spirit  of  discovery  and 
invention,  and  even  religion  itself,  depend  much  upon  the 
enthusiasm  and  the  energy  prompted  by  that  union  of  the 
thoughtful  and  the  beautiful  which  we  call  the  poetical 
element ;  not  only  does  it  cheer  us  with  images  of  tender- 
ness and  sublimity  but  it  relieves  truth  from  all  sordid 


THE   BURNS   FESTIVAL.  5 

and  conventional  restraints,  by  applying  the  universal 
law  of  appreciation  to  every  form  of  excellence,  indepen- 
dent of  partial  distinctions,  searching  out  beauty  not  only 
in  the  star  that  shoots  across  the  heavens,  but  in  the  pass- 
ing acts  that  flit  before  our  lives,  reducing  the  gold  mine 
to  its  proper  level  in  the  landscape,  and  elevating  the 
gentlest  flower  and  the  humblest  effort  of  duty  to  kindred 
communion  with  the  grandest  achievement.  How  much 
we  tolerate  in  poetry  what  is  forbidden  in  society !  "We 
hang  the  beggar  in  our  parlors  and  admire  him  as  an  effort 
of  art,  while  as  an  effort  of  nature  he  is  thrust  into  the 
street.  The  genius  of  Burns  assumes  neither  the  dramatic 
nor  the  epic  form;  with  much  of  the  sublimity,  he  has 
none  of  the  audacity  which  aspires  to  occupy  fields  Homer 
and  Shakespeare  have  exhausted.  His  genius  is  too  direct 
and  didactic,  too  personal  and  spontaneous,  to  bear  the 
restraints  of  grouping  and  combining  character.  What 
he  teaches  us,  he  teaches  separately  and  by  itself,  through 
genial  statements,  rather  than  exciting  incidents. 

He  never  would  have  conceived  the  madness  of  Lear, 
in  order  to  intensify  our  horror  of  filial  ingratitude,  but 
he  would  have  taken  Goneril  and  E-egan  by  themselves, 
dismissed  the  attendants,  hushed  the  drums,  put  out  the 
foot  lights,  and  streamed  such  a  flood  of  heaven-sent 
truths  upon  their  conduct,  as  would  have  shamed  all  the 
daughters  from  'John  O'G-roat's'  to  the  Fifth  avenue. 
The  great  aim  of  Burns'  genius  is  to  make  us  feel  truth 
as  lovely,  rather  than  to  strike  us  as  grand :  not  with  the 
imposing  artistic  complications  of  the  orchestra  does  he 
break  upon  us,  but  like  a  lonely  bird  who  has  soared  into 
the  heavens,  and  sings  to  us  of  their  purity,  who  has 
lighted  on  tree  top,  streamlet,  and  flower  bush,  with  a 
loving  word  for  their  beauty  and  their  freedom,  who  has 
pecked  at  the  palace  gates,  and  knows  of  their  barrenness, 


6  ADDEESS  AT 

and  who  at  last  falls  bleeding  and  wounded  upon  our 
bosoms  to  be  guarded  and  loved  ever  more. 

The  poetry  of  Burns  is  simply  the  steps  of  a  poor 
plain  man  keeping  time  to  the  richest  music  of  the  human 
soul,  where  obscure  joys  and  uninteresting  troubles  are 
sublimed  into  universal  beauties.  Every  trivial  circum- 
stance in  his  path  seems  strung  with  the  strings  of  a  harp, 
so  melodiously  do  all  ordinary  facts  play  about  him. 

How  many  daisies  have  been  buried  in  the  plough- 
man's furrow,  and  yet  only  one  shall  rise  again  to  bloom 
on  forever  in  the  Heaven  of  the  poet's  inspiration  !  How 
many  dogs  have  barked  and  blest  their  masters  with  their 
knowledge  and  sagacity,  yet  only  "  two  dogs  "  shall  wag 
their  tails  at  the  coming  ages ! 

Is  it  not  usual  for  the  morning  light  to  play  upon  the 
graves  of  the  humble  departed  ?  and  yet  there  is  one  tomb 
and  one  form  where  that  "  lingering  star  with  lessening 
ray  "  shall  come  and  deck  that  crumbling  memorial,  for 
loving  companionship,  with  princes  and  rulers,  and  all 
who  feel  in  its  purity  that  universal  passion  which  has 
gone  through  the  world,  bearing  its  electric  fire  into  the 
human  breast,  and  dashing  its  scarlet  spray  into  the 
human  countenance  ever  since  man's  first  heart-throb 
broke  on  the  deep  calm  of  Eden. 

The  love  of  Burns,  unlike  most  men's  love,  was  neither 
a  transient  passion  nor  an  effeminate  crisis  in  his  life,  but 
it  formed  the  basis  of  his  character,  prompting  and  per- 
vading all  the  better  flights  of  his  imagination ;  even  his 
satires  were 'battles  for  the  heart,  (the  thistles  defending 
their  flower ;)  at  one  time  this  love  is  a  private  passion, 
struggling  in  the  ranks,  side  by  side  with  other  emotions, 
at  another  it  is  a  Generalissimo  leading  on  all  the  forces 
of  the  soul  to  vast  and  varied  aims  of  comprehensive  good ; 
when  woman's  beauty  quickens  it,  how  it  shrinks  into  a 


THE   BURNS   FESTIVAL.  7 

personal  fancy,  ending  in  a  ditty,  or  a  wedding,  as  in 
Mary  Morrison;  when  philanthropy  moves  it  how  it 
expands  into  universal  sympathy,  into  the  sermon  of  the 
"  unco-righteous,"  and  that  deathless  line — "  A  man  's  a 
man  for  a'  that." 

Love  is  a  part  of  the  genius  of  Burns,  and  cannot  be 
separated  from  it.  Indeed,  is  not  genius  .itself  the  love 
of  the  mind,  making  earnestness  and  sensibility  the  law 
of  all  high  thought,  as  love  itself  is  but  the  genius  of  the 
heart,  sending  the  richest  graces  of  thought  and  imagina- 
tion, in  the  very  centre  of  our  emotions  for  another  ? 

Like  life,  love's  highest  hope  is  to  be  immortal. 

Like  death,  it  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  for  it  steals 
into  the  ball-room  without  a  card  of  invitation,  and 
edging  its  way  up  to  the  head  couple,  rummages  under 
all  the  diamonds  and  point-lace  embankments  of  the 
Duchess  until  it  reaches  the  stripped-naked  heart,  shaking 
it  with  the  most  plebeian  vigor ;  then  it  descends  into  the 
kitchen,  weaves  the  dish-cloth  into  a  canopy,  and  seats 
down  the  cook  royally  under  it ;  indeed,  the  bell  is  ring- 
ing to  replenish  the  parlor  fire,  at  the  very  moment  when 
the  footman  is  throwing  a  scuttle-full  of  sentiment  on  his 
own  flame.  ISTo  nature  is  complete  without  this  element 
of  character.  ]STo  zone  has  escaped  it.  Now  it  breathes 
o'er  bustling  nations  the  genial  sedatives  of  peace  and 
good  fellowship ;  now  it  tempers  the  awful  glaciers  of  the 
Alps  with  the  dissolving  flame  of  catholic  hospitality; 
now  it  breaks  meekly  upon  the  earnest  heart  of  Wilber- 
force ;  and  now  it  plays  its  lightning  tricks  under  the  flashy 
waistcoat  of  "  Mr.  Toots."  It  is  freer  than  Charity,  for  it 
giveth  away  itself;  it  is  broader  than  faith,  for  it  beams  on 
the  faithless ;  it  is  wiser  than  reason,  for,  while  reason  is 
groping  for  a  God,  love  is  beaming  upon  his  bosom,  and, 
with  outstretched  arms,  calling  upon  the  true  and  the 


8  ADDRESS   AT   THE   BURNS  FESTIVAL. 

treacherous  to  hurry  under  the  shelter  of  its  all-embracing 
presence. 

Such  was  the  love  and  such  the  teachings  of  Kobert 
Burns,  a  crushed  and  trodden  spirit,  who,  like  the  sunken 
mines  under  our  feet,  has  poured  forth  his  wealth  to  bless 
the  nations.  The  age  is  bristling  all  over  with  sharp 
questions  about  right  and  duty.  Man  is  ever  calling  for 
a  broader  and  deeper  recognition  of  his  humanity,  the 
loftiest  brows  in  every  land  are  wrinkling  with  schemes 
to  dethrone  the  crowned  errors  that  baffle  the  brotherhood 
of  races. 

Washington's  sword  has  cut  away  the  outer  impedi- 
ment, Jefferson's  pen  has  framed  the  outer  charter,  and 
as  long  only  as  such  spirits  as  Robert  Burns'  shall  follow 
in  their  path,  moulding  the  inner  life  of  the  nation  to 
beauty  and  fellowship,  so  long  will  humanity  be  hopeful, 
reform  possible,  and  freedom  safe. 


DELIVEKED  AT  MONTICELLO,    VA.,   AT  THE 

TOMB  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 

JULY  4TH,  1859. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS  : 

I  HAVE  come  from  the  city  of  ten  thousand  masts,  I 
have  come  from  the  golden  shores  of  the  commerce-king 
and  the  palace  home,  where  the  roar  of  trade  and  the 
revels  of  fashion,  the  waving  flag  and  the  beating  heart 
are  busy  with  the  beauty  and  the  wealth  of  this  hour.  I 
have  left  them  all  to  invoke  the  holier  inspirations  of  this 
spot— to  gaze  with  those  distant  mountains  upon  the 
grave  of  a  loftier  peak — I  have  come  to  bow  my  pilgrim 
breast  before  the  cold  grey  tomb  under  which  lies  the 
withered  hand,  that  penned  the  fortunes  of  this  day.  A 
hand  that  drew  no  blood,  led  no  charge,  pierced  no  foe, 
yet  riddled  an  ancient  monarchy  with  the  bulleted  vigor 
of  its  virtue  and  its  logic. 

Was  it  not  meet  that  so  majestic  a  reach  of  character 
should  have  enthroned  itself  upon  so  imperial  a  sweep  of 
scenery.  And  is  it  not  possible  that  the  bold  freedom  of 
the  Declaration,  owes  something  to  the  comprehensive 


10  ORATION   AT   THE 

grandeur  of  the  scene  where  it  was  first  conceived  and 
partly  indited.  These  wide-spreading  undulations  of 
plain  and  upland,  these  startling  contrasts  of  grassy  slope 
and  high  roaring  precipice,  where  you  cannot  move  with- 
out the  spirit  of  beauty  getting  up  to  accompany  you, 
where  you  cannot  do  a  mean  or  little  thing  without 
something  lofty  looking  down  upon  it — mountains  rising 
with  us  in  the  morning  and  stretching  up  with  our  top- 
most hope  into  those  impenetrable  mists  that  skirt  on 
immortality,  while  in  the  evening,  dying  suns  are  shower- 
ing the  rugged  summits  with  a  light  that  shall  cheer  and 
chasten  our  own  inaccessible  aspirations.  Would  not 
such  inspiring  elements,  prompt  a  great  soul  to  grasp  the 
magnanimous  elevations  of  a  great  cause,  and  with  cor- 
responding breadth  of  view  diffuse  himself  more  sub- 
limely over  the  vast  range  of  his  country's  hopes  and 
interests. 

As  I  stand  here  this  evening  upon  this  consecrated 
summit,  so  sacred  to  that  one  death,  second  only  in  Vir- 
ginia's love  to  Mount  Yernon's  dearer  dust,  I  sink  in 
memory  behind  the  high  places  of  our  present  fortunes,  I 
pass  beyond  the  formative  periods  of  the  Convention  and 
the  Constitution,  I  go  back  to  where  no  smoke  of  fraternal 
battlefields  choke  the  light  of  peacefully  descending  suns, 
to  where  no  Anglo-Saxon  sword  has  pierced  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  heart,  and  as  I  reach  that  earlier  calm,  that  brood- 
ing pause  which  mentally  moulds  though  it  physically 
waits  the  dismembering  moment,  I  see  before  me,  breath- 
ing this  bracing  air,  contemplating  this  inspiring  view, 
standing  thoughtful,  admiring  upon  this  lonely  eminence, 
a  young  man  whose  worldly  means  and  heavenly  gifts 
have  brought  him  here  to  settle,  the  permanent  spirit  of 
this  spot.  And  this  is  in  the  year  1Y69,  that  year  of  por- 
tentous and  gigantic  births.;  that  year  which  gave  new 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON,  11 

conquerors  to  empires  and  new  discoveries  to  science ;  the 
year  which  rocked  the  cradles  of  ISTapoleou  and  "Welling- 
ton, of  Marshal  Soult,  Mehemet  Ali,  and  Yon  Humboldt. 
Later,  in  1772, 1  see  him  again  as  your  fathers  saw  him, 
toiling  up  this  declivity,  through  the  deep  snow  of  that 
year.  But  he  is  bearing  a  melting  antidote  upon  his  arm. 
He  brings  a  warmer  flame  to  kindle  at  the  hearth-stone,  a 
softer  bosom  to  mingle  with  the  undulations  of  the  land- 
scape. In  the  calm  preceding  the  shock  of  the  Revolu- 
tion,  the  flower  of  his  affections  had  sprouted.  "Without 
a  pound  of  powder,  or  a  single  regiment,  the  widow 
"Wailes,  brought  down  this  sturdy  opposer  of  tyrants,  and 
future  ruler  of  prosperous  States  upon  his  knees  to  a 
weaker  race,  that  conquers  without  humiliating  the  lords 
of  creation. 

The  graver  dignity  of  history  has  not  suffered  by  iden- 
tifying Thomas  Jefferson,  with  a  sentiment  which  cannot 
be  kept  out  of  boarding  schools,  and  will  slip  into  the  cir- 
culation of  kings.  Refining  without  enervating,  exclusive 
but  not  selfish,  impulsive  yet  conservative,  the  wildest 
joy  and  the  soundest  policy,  that  shakes  the  nerves  but 
steadies  the  State,  melting  the  citizen  into  the  lover, 
swearing  the  lover  into  the  husband,  and  giving  back  the 
husband  with  renewed  dignity  and  efficiency  to  the  dis- 
charge of  the  civic  and  domestic  relations,  this  profound 
political  philosopher  looked  upon  personal  affection  and 
its  legal  consequences,  not  only  in  the  light  of  a  definite 
and  enduring  partiality  of  one  to  another,  but  also,  as  a 
solid  political  virtue  which  armed  the  patriot  with  a 
deeper  strength  and  a  stouter  pulse  to  serve  his  country 
and  perfect  his  character. 

No  man  has  ever  administered  the  general  rights  or 
swayed  the  political  thoughts  of  so  many  millions  of 
beings,  who  more  closely  identified  himself  with  the  tastes 


12  ORATION   AT   THE 

and  interests  of  each  member  of  his  own  family.  Jefler- 
son  felt  that  he  was  serving  his  cause  as  much  by  the 
judicious  rearing  of  a  child,  as  by  drafting  stirring  resolu- 
tions against  a  tyrant,  or  discharging  the  more  pompous 
functions  of  Supreme  power.  He  knew  how  one  depended 
and  reacted  upon  the  other.  He  knew  how  the  justice 
and  humanity  which  come  to  us  through  good  laws,  do 
not  confine  themselves  to  mere  out-door  life,  but  like  the 
invigorating  breezes  of  heaven,  go  whistling  through  door- 
way and  window  pane,  down  to  the  very  hearth-stone 
with  their  chastening  music.  He  knew  that  if  home  is 
the  rich  contributor  to  the  moral  wealth  of  the  nation,  so 
does  the  government  react  upon  the  home,  infusing  into 
domestic  discipline  something  of  the  dignity,  the  intelli- 
gence, and  the  forbearance  which  belongs  to  public 
authority.  How  the  boy's  romp  would  one  day  be  the 
nation's  energy.  How  the  bounding  vivacity  of  girlhood 
must  calm  into  the  serener  enthusiasm  of  motherly  devo- 
tion, and  how  responsible  he  was,  ruler  of  millions  though 
he  might  be,  for  the  sensible  moulding  of  their  dawning 
forces.  Indeed  it  may  be  literally  said,  that  Thomas 
Jefferson  brought  up  both  simultaneously,  his  family  in 
one  hand  and  his  country  in  the  other ;  alternately  con- 
tracting himself  to  the  meeker  circle  of  home  joys,  the 
more  genially  to  expand  into  a  national  blessing.  This 
intense  sympathy  with  individual  life,  constitutes  the 
groundwork  of  that  deeper  faith  in  mankind,  that  con- 
stant courageous  outpouring  of  self,  for  all,  that  belief  in 
the  instinctive  power  of  the  lesser  minds  of  the  masses  to 
strike  their  own  light,  and  work  their  own  way  to  knowl- 
edge and  happiness.  This  union  of  mental  power  and 
social  interest  ever  moulded  his  creed  to  loving  dimen- 
sions with  all  mankind,  enthroning  justice  to  all  men,  and 
room  for  all  men  in  all  places,  as  the  sterling  law  of  pub- 


TOMB   OF    THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  13 

lie  duty  as  well  as  private  feeling,  wherever  the  brain 
brings  the  chartered  right  to  rise.  In  his  dialogue  be- 
tween head  and  heart,  he  makes  the  heart  say,  the  world 
is  full  of  trouble,  to  relieve  its  burdens  we  should  share  it 
between  us.  This  with  proper  modifications  is  the  key  to 
his  political  system.  A  creed  so  grand,  so  safe,  so  broad, 
did  it  not  shape  the  current  of  our  earlier  glory,  and  does 
it  not  plan  the  theory  of  our  purest  passing  life  ?  Gleam- 
ing paramount  through  ode,  ordinance,  and  essay;  con- 
centrate in  motto  and  proverb ;  transfixed  in  medal  and 
statue,  glittering  on  the  festal  drapery,  rolling  from  the 
righteous  canon,  thundering  in  the  deathless  speech,  the 
spear  of  all  political  fallacies,  the  hope  of  all  political 
progress,  rising  with  our  prayers,  dropping  with  our  tears, 
difficult  as  a  system,  beautiful  as  an  ideal,  sometimes  pos- 
sible and  always  wise,  has  it  not  from  the  golden  days  of 
Athens,  from  Aristotle  and  the  Amphyctionic  assembly 
in  the  dark  deluge  of  the  invasion,  through  the  communal 
revolutions  of  the  middle  ages,  under  crescent,  cross,  and 
feudal  tower,  the  outward  myth,  the  inward  hope,  shrink- 
ing, sinking,  yet  holding  on  by  no  severed  link,  with 
buried  but  dauntless  tenacity,  all  the  way  from  the  Tar- 
peian  to  the  Plymouth  rock,  landed  at  last,  picking 
crumbs  of  privilege  from  the  rich  George's  table  until 
with  its  own  bright  flame  it  learns  to  bake  its  own  loaf 
and  lies  down  to  be  stunned  and  starved  no  more.  Did 
not  this  sentiment  shine  like  a  miner's  lamp  on  Jefferson's 
brow  at  the  damp,  dark  commencement,  and  does  it  not 
redden  along  the  heights  of  a  fame  second  only  to  Wash- 
ington's in  popularity,  and  beyond  all  modern  or  cotem- 
porary  statesmen  in  breadth  of  political  sympathy  and 
sagacity?  In  contemplating  human  greatness,  mankind 
will  be  most  healthfully  influenced  by  those  who  have 
been  true  as  well  as  wise  in  the  measure  of  their  achieve- 


14  ORATION   AT   THE 

ments;  who  have  exhibited  most  harmony  between  the 
greatness  of  their  deeds  and  the  purity  of  their  lives. 

Does  not  the  worship  of  great  men  constitute  the  only 
religion  of  a  large  portion  of  the  human  race,  and  are  not 
these  fair  ideals  too  often  shattered  by  abrupt  inconsisten- 
cies of  career,  by  painful  contrasts  between  noble  thoughts 
and  ignoble  weaknesses,  which  acting  on  lesser  minds 
tend  to  content  and  conform  them  in  their  own  predis- 
posed and  now  high-sanctioned  degeneracy?  Could  all 
the  sententious  eloquence  of  the  accuser  of  Catiline  vindi- 
cate the  morbid  vanity  so  apparent  in  the  biography  of 
Cicero  ?  How  the  "  Common  Sense "  of  Thomas  Paine 
brightened  and  braced  up  the  old  colonial  spirit,  yet  did 
not  this  Paine  defy  Christ,  embrace  the  bottle,  and  leave 
America  no  safe  spot  to  date  his  eulogy  from  ? 

Is  a  distinguished  author  of  our  day  quite  sure  that  his 
"Household  Words"  are  not  loftier  than  his  household 
deeds?  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  "plane  of  continued 
elevations,"  a  complete  harmony  in  life,  mind,  and  charac- 
ter. His  fame  does  not  rest  upon  an  eminence  reached 
by  the  spasmodic  upheaval  of  a  few  excellencies  which 
often  leave  wide  chasms  of  defects  yawning  beneath  their 
higher  traits. 

He  did  not,  like  Seneca,  declaim  against  avarice  with 
a  million  at  usury.  He  will  not  like  England's  great 
chancellor  astonish  all  mankind  with  his  wisdom  in  dis- 
covering the  truth  and  his  meanness  in  taking  bribes  to 
suppress  it.  Nor  like  the  great  orator  Fox,  who  poured 
forth  such  golden  sentences  upon  the  public  credit  and 
dropped  not  even  one  copper  into  the  ear  or  hand  of  his 
own  private  creditors.  Thomas  Jefferson  not  only  paid 
his  own  debts  but  beggared  himself  in  discharging  the 
obligations  of  others.  He  endorsed  his  name  upon  his 
country  when  she  most  needed  the  credit  of  that  name, 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  15 

and  those  services  and  this  make  him  immortal.  He 
wrote  that  name  upon  his  friend's  paper,  and  had  he  lived, 
it  would  have  driven  him  from  these  lofty  halls  whose 
roof  for  more  than  half  a  century  had  domed  his  dearest 
joys  and  noblest  conceptions.  Halls  which  have  wit- 
nessed the  confidential  consultations  of  some  of  the  wisest 
and  best  men  who  have  ever  been  called  to  the  govern- 
ment of  any  land.  Here  for  weeks  and  months  passed 
many  of  the  secluded  hours  of  President  Madison,  one  of 
the  ablest  framers,  and  President  Monroe,  one  of  the 
safest  administrators,  of  the  American  Constitution.  So 
frequent  and  familiar  were  their  visits,  that  yonder  door 
opens  upon  the  "  Madison  Chamber,"  and  farther  on,  the 
"  Monroe  Room,"  designates  how  closely  those  co-workers 
in  a  glorious  statesmanship,  were  linked  to  personal  sym- 
pathy and  social  brotherhood.  How  often  have  those 
three  Presidents  paced  these  halls  with  anxious  solicitude 
and  in  deep  patriotic  communings  for  the  success  of  mea- 
sures which  should  counteract  less  wise  and  less  temperate 
efforts  of  party  feeling  and  selfish  rivalry.  How  often, 
where  I  now  stand,  have  these  three  Presidents  drank 
their  tea,  invoked  their  God,  and  determined  those  mea- 
sures of  public  utility  which  have  gone  forth  to  disarm 
faction,  strengthen  the  Republic,  and  immortalize  them- 
selves. Was  it  not  in  this  hall  that  Lafayette  stepped 
from  the  unfinished  portico,  on  his  last  visit  to  the  United 
States,  and  clasped  in  one  long  speechless  embrace  the 
associate  of  his  earlier  and  surer  triumph?  I  see  them 
now  only  a  few  feet  from  where  I  stand.  I  behold  the 
meeting  of  Jefferson  and  Lafayette ;  I  witness  their  em- 
braces. They  cannot  speak;  their  hands  are  clasped, 
their  breasts  heave,  their  lips  quiver ;  they  cannot  speak, 
for  a  loving,  helpful,  deathless  past  is  filling  them  with 
tears  and  choking  them  with  memories.  They  are  think- 


16  ORATION  AT   THE 

ing  of  the  great  friend  who  has  crumbled  away,  since  long 
ago  in  field  and  counsel  they  planned  and  won  the  right 
together.  They  are  thinking  of  this  great  cause  which 
went  forth  an  armed  and  tattered  hope,  now  returned  a 
peaceful,  well-dressed  fact,  which  shall  bind  for  all  time 
in  America's  grateful  glory  that  host  and  that  guest,  as 
there  they  stand  locked  in  each  other's  arms,  the  founders 
and  the  compeers  of  America's  better  life. 

The  genius  of  this  spot  seemed  always  to  reassure  the 
republican  sentiment,  and  no  matter  how  despondent  or 
exhausted  the  owner  might  seek  his  home  from  the  per- 
plexities of  official  life,  or  the  acrimonious  assaults  of  poli- 
tical enemies,  there  was  always  something  in  the  calm 
beauty  and  purity  of  the  scene  to  cheer  his  faith  and 
scatter  the  bolt. 

Perhaps  the  most  enduring  memorial  of  the  variety 
and  reach  of  Jefferson's  powers  are  to  be  found  in  his  ex- 
tensive correspondence  upon  Mechanics,  Metaphysics, 
Natural  Philosophy,  Religion,  and  Politics  with  the  great 
and  the  learned  of  his  time  in  Europe  and  America. 
And  always  with  a  depth  of  knowledge  and  a  force  of 
reasoning  without  a  parallel  in  one  whose  life  had  been 
devoted  to  the  comparatively  superficial  and  distracting 
duties  of  active  political  leadership.  He  reasons  with 
Cuvier  and  Buffon  on  natural  history  and  zoology; 
against  Cuvier  he  maintains  his  theory  upon  the  size  and 
physiology  of  animals  with  an  ability  and  pertinacity, 
which  in  one  instance  verified  his  accuracy,  by  producing 
at  an  enormous  personal  expense  the  horns  of  a  moose,  20 
feet  longer  than  Cuvier  had  declared  it  possible  to  exist. 
With  Clark,  when  about  to  explore  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase, during  his  administration,  he  urges  upon  the  intrep- 
id traveller  the  advantages  of  the  equatorial  time  table 
in  determining  his  longitude,  and  with  an  ingenuity  of 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  17 

argument  and  illustration  that  prove  how  much  he  must 
have  observed  and  experimented  upon  the  subject.  In 
farming,  engineering  and  architecture,  the  chemical  treat- 
ment of  soils,  the  growth  of  tobacco,  the  importing  and 
transplanting  of  trees,  the  possibilities  of  wine  and  grape 
culture,  banishing  the  doctors,  and  curing  the  measles 
with  his  own  prescriptions,  inventing  games  for  his  chil- 
dren, advising  with  them  in  the  minutest  offices  of  dress 
or  conduct,  from  the  tying  of  a  ribbon  bow  to  the  keeping 
of  a  commandment;  and  all  this,  too,  while  his  whole 
energies  seemed  to  be  absorbed  in  the  graver  duties  of 

O  C2 

administering  the  government  :  in  founding  a  great 
party,  cementing  a  durable  policy,  supporting  Washing- 
ton, supplanting  Adams,  nullifying  Hamilton,  warring  on 
the  throne  threateners,  bargaining  with  the  god  of  war,  at 
Paris,  for  a  vast  territorial  support  to  his  logic  and  his 
country.  Corresponding,  too,  with  Dr.  Priestly  upon 
religion,  in  a  tone  of  discriminating  reverence  that  refutes 
those  bilious  volleys  against  his  Christianity,  which  in- 
duced a  certain  New  York  clergyman,  who  visited  his 
grave,  to  declare  that  ho  lay  buried  like  a  dog  as  he 
should.  There  was  more  religion  in  one  wag  of  that  dog's 
tail  than  in  all  the  barking  orthodoxy  of  such  letters. 
Jefferson's  religion,  like  his  politics,  his  philosophy,  and 
that  unerring  good  sense  which  he  brought  to  bear  upon 
every  form  of  duty,  was  the  result  of  conscientious  con- 
viction. And  these  convictions  were  the  uniform  prompt- 
ings of  that  full,  rounded,  thoroughly  developed  manhood, 
which  impressed  a  successful  individuality  upon  every 
element  with  which  he  grappled.  With  great  men  great 
actions  are  but  the  necessary  fulfilments  of  their  own 
natures,  and  these  outpourings  of  soul  which  startle  the 
world  only  relieve  them.  Even  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  most  prominent  point  in  his  career,  which 
2 


18  ORATION   AT   THE 

sent  his  name  echoing  to  the  Pyramids,  dropped  serenely 
and  naturally  from  him  as  his  obvious  share  in  a  great 
crisis.  "What  a  fine  subject  for  an  historical  painting,  the 
grouping  of  that  sub-committee  of  three  who  were  de- 
puted by  their  associates  to  report  a  draft  of  the  Declara- 
tion. John  Adams,  the  Colossus  of  the  Revolution,  and 
Benjamin  Franklin,  the  greatest  philosopher  of  his  day, 
turning  involuntarily  to  Jefferson,  as  the  ablest  mouth- 
piece to  the  world  of  the  difficulty  and  the  remedy.  Does 
not  Franklin  seem  to  say,  I  brought  lightning  from 
heaven,  but  yours  is  the  hand  to  hurl  it  in  graceful 
periods  at  the  enemy?  Without  "Washington's  serene 
blending  of  the  thoughtful  and  the  heroic,  he  was  equally 
devoted  by  will  and  mental  adaptation  to  the  civil  side 
of  a  reconstructing  era.  It  will  be  always  to  the  interest 
of  American  emulation  distinctly  to  preserve  Washing- 
ton's character  above  and  apart  from  critical  comparisons 
with  his  Revolutionary  associates.  If  any  one  of  them 
developed  a  faculty  or  a  form  of  success  greater  in  any 
particular  direction  than  Washington  exhibited,  if  Jeffer- 
son was  the  greatest  expounder  of  the  democratic  creed, 
if  Hamilton  stands  to  the  Federalists  as  the  unapproacha- 
ble exponent  of  their  centralizing  faith,  if  Otis  and  Adams 
wooed  the  goddess  of  liberty  with  the  prompt,  fiery  rhet- 
oric of  gods,  if  General  Greene  achieved  a  masterly 
retreat  and  overcame  almost  insurmountable  obstacles  in 
generalship,  if  Allen  and  Putnam  performed  almost  in- 
credible feats  of  physical  hardihood,  these  individual 
characteristics,  as  elements  of  instruction,  as  subjects  of 
pride  and  gratitude,  should  always,  and  will  always,  hold 
their  place  in  the  appreciation  of  posterity.  But  Wash- 
ington not  only  led  armies  and  settled  States,  but,  by 
harmony  of  mental  and  moral  organization,  fused  all  these 
individual  excellencies  and  particular  antagonisms  into 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  19 

one  grand  complete  military  and  civil  success.  While 
others  stand  to  America  as  types  of  some  special  relation, 
he  represents  the  highest  and  most  complete  form  of  ab- 
stract excellence  known  to  practical  life.  To  the  proud 
worldly  business  man,  he  is  the  grandest  American  form 
of  successful  ambition.  To  the  theorist,  the  Christian  and 
moralist,  the  most  exquisite  realization  of  duty  in  love  and 
sacrifice  under  the  severest  of  earthly  temptations. 

While  with  hushed  awe  and  impotent  analysis,  we 
leave  Washington  upon  his  lonely  peak,  the  merits  of 
those  who  surrounded  him,  who  have  more  or  less  deter- 
mined since  the  civil  polity  of  the  government,  will  be  fair 
subjects  for  criticism,  as  well  as  gratitude.  To  be  dis- 
criminatingly grateful  we  must  be  cognizant  of  the  extent 
of  service  which  each  one  has  rendered.  All  the  great 
lights  helped  the  crisis,  and  all  have  admirers.  But  what 
Henry,  dropping  the  spirit  of  a  giant  from  the  lips  of  a 
seraph ;  what  Jay,  delicate,  conservative,  and  intellectual ; 
what  Lee,  finished,  forcible  and  fastidious;  what  Ran- 
dolph, his  eye  rolling  like  a  globe  with  the  Union  on  fire 
in  it,  with  fervor  pungent,  peculiar  and  satirical ;  what 
Madison,  so  modest,  so  pure  and  comprehensive;  who 
among  them  all,  like  Jefferson,  have  left  patient  students, 
determined  vindicators,  constant  quoters,  lasting  followers 
of  their  creed  and  life  ?  Whose  name  is  next  to  Washing- 
ton's, is  so  deep  in  the  patriot's  heart,  whose  name  so  helps 
the  partisan's  cause  and  yet  so  rebukes  the  violence,  the 
malignity  and  the  selfishness  of  the  partisan's  life?  If 
Hamilton  left  a  policy  or  a  party,  like  the  king  at  a 
masquerade,  it  was  killed  in  one  of  its  disguises,  and  now 
lies  mouldering  with  the  remains  of  the  late  Whig  organi- 
zation. Many  and  contradictory  have  been  the  compari- 
sons drawn  between  these  great  chiefs  and  founders  of 
America's  constitutional  statesmanship.  In  their  lifetimes 


20  ORATION   AT   THE 

both  looked  upon  each  other  as  deranged  giants.  Hamil- 
ton viewed  Jefferson  as  a  patriotic  but  dangerous,  because 
inordinate  believer  in  the  good  sense  and  morality  of  the 
people.  Jefferson  distrusted  the  republicanism  of  a  man 
who  was  the  affianced  lover  of  British  institutions, 
and  though  his  intentions  were  honest,  he  believed  the 
policy  of  Hamilton  tended  to  a  reaction  against  liberal 
principles,  which  must  render  all  they  had  suffered,  and 
all  they  had  accomplished,  only  a  dramatic  episode,  a 
temporary  cessation  in  the  hopeless  permanency  of  re- 
established tyranny.  Yet  the  very  alarm  of  each  was  a 
benefit  to  both.  The  fear  of  others  is  often  the  cure  of 
ourselves.  As  homosopathy  has  frightened  allopathy  into 
small  doses,  so  Jefferson's  confidence  in  the  people  was 
possibly  prevented  from  degenerating  to  extremes  by  the 
equally  intellectual  antagonism  that  confronted  him. 
And  there  is  no  question  but  that  Hamilton  could  never 
have  retained  his  high  position  as  the  equipoise  of  "Wash- 
ington's administration,  without  that  pacifying  modifica- 
tion of  doctrine  so  imperative  in  the  harmonizing  atmo- 
sphere of  the  chief. 

"Washington's  administration  was  born  of  the  unanimi- 
ty of  national  gratitude,  and  demanded  a  corresponding 
conciliation  in  framing  the  national  issues. 

It  was  a  government  of  hope  and  thought,  where 
policy  should  exist  without  rancor  when  it  is  urged  with- 
out experience,  where  trade  and  currency,  bank  and 
tariff,  must  be  intellectual  disputes  before  they  can  settle 
into  conceded  truths. 

In  organizing  periods  of  government  when  thought  is 
active  and  experience  limited,  every  ably  supported 
theory  will  have  its  champions.  The  alien  and  sedition 
acts  were  believed  by  many  to  be  a  healthy  check  on  the 
abuse  of  free  speech;  laws  against  witchcraft,  in  New 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  21 

England,  seemed  indispensable  for  the  protection  of  good 
society,  against  the  return  of  absolute  monarchy  under 
Lucifer !  and  the  followers  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  then 
nearly  equally  divided,  how  stand  they  all  now  in  the 
popular  regard.  After  long  years  of  trial  and  develop- 
ment, after  more  than  doubling  the  number  of  States  and 
increasing  the  population  eight  hundred  per  cent.,  does 
not  the  policy  of  Jefferson  control  and  has  it  not  con- 
trolled the  government  for  more  than  fifty,  out  of  the 
seventy  years  of  its  existence?  Is  it  not  the  father  of 
every  liberal  act  which  has  rectified  the  early  crudities, 
and  calmed  the  early  and  later  fears  of  less  wise,  less 
hopeful  periods  of  public  sentiment?  Has  it  not,  with 
one  or  two  accidental  exceptions,  seated  its  chiefs  quad- 
rennially in  the  central  chair?  Has  it  not  administered 
our  foreign  relations  in  a  spirit  at  once  watchful,  vigorous, 
and  abstemious  ?  has  it  not  fought  its  way  to  the  throne 
of  popular  approval,  through  the  rain  and  lightning  of  a 
supreme  adverse  eloquence,  of  stump,  press,  and  tribune  ? 
Has  it  not  sobered  the  intemperance  of  trade  by  its  stop 
and  pay  policy,  crushing  with  its  own  veto  an  arrogant 
bank  charter,  despite  of  all  its  silvery  defences?  And 
when  the  importations  were  drowned  in  excess  of  duties, 
did  it  not  shake  the  overtax  from  rustling  silk  and  weak- 
ened tea?  Under  the  storm  of  your  passing  politics, 
under  the  temporary  struggles  of  Goggin  and  Letcher,  of 
opposition  and  administration,  beneath  dark  lantern  and 
dark  skin,  and  every  wave  of  sectional  and  national  agita- 
tion, lies  the  calm,  perpetual  pearl  of  Jefferson's  liberal, 
admonitory,  Union-loving,  love-enkindling  faith. 

The  sun  which  rolls  once  a  day  over  this  dull  clod, 
dispenses  no  more  comforting  beams  than  his  words  have 
shot  into  the  dark  bosom  of  suffering  nations.  The  fruit 
that  buds  so  temptingly  pendent  in  the  surrounding 


22  ORATION   AT   THE 

prospect  shall  yield  no  such  grateful  plenty,  as  the  cluster- 
ing truths  that  still  drop  from  the  ripened  reach  of  his 
philosophy.  The  birds  that  come  and  perch  upon  the  trees 
planted  by  his  hands,  and  soothe  with  their  gentle  cadences 
the  disembodied  complacent  shade,  warble  no  such  free 
and  joyous  melodies  as  those  deeper  tones  in  which  he 
called  a  drooping  and  discordant  people  to  redemption. 

Is  not  the  grave  wise  as  well  as  cold,  and  does  not  this 
hacked  and  pilfered  granite,  so  significant  of  that  rapacious 
gratitude  which  breaks  the  tomb  to  prop  the  recollections 
of  it,  does  it  not  lift  us  with  a  grander  strength  to  the 
heroic  level  of  the  day,  and  stir  our  hearts  warmer  and 
deeper  than  bugle  strain,  or  bannered  march,  or  measured 
speech,  or  any  of  those  explosive  stimulants  to  remem- 
brance with  which  praise  has  summoned  art  and  genius  to 
share  and  shape  the  current  gladness?  Does  it  not  say 
to  us,  Here  lies  the  crumbling  husk  of  a  truth  that  is  nour- 
ishing us  all  ?  Here  lies  all  that  can  die  of  that  philoso- 
phy which  gave  to  your  politics  an  enduring  party,  and 
of  that  patriotism  which  assisted  us  to  a  country ;  fulfilling 
in  one  age  the  deep  want  of  all  the  ages  ? 

Can  there  be  a  holier  help  to  the  programme  of  this 
commemoration,  than  to  chasten  it  with  the  dust  of  him 
who  was  the  central  figure  in  this  day's  convention,  the 
classic  spokesman  of  this  day's  resolve.  "Who  plucked 
from  their  gloomy  foreheads  the  brooding  thoughts  of 
three  millions  of  colonists,  and  with  the  richest  grace  of 
England's  speech,  shapes  the  tale  of  England's  wrong, 
defies  the  peal  of  England's  gun,  snaps  the  stretch  of 
England's  chain,  and  from  a  wider,  warmer,  bolder  angle 
of  revolutionary  light,  streams  upon  the  world  that  death- 
less string  of  glittering  generalities,  which  an  eastern  ora- 
tor has  so  devoutly  designated  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Aye,  and  it  did  glitter,  like  the  morning  sun 


TOMB   OF    THOMAS   JEFFEKSON.  23 

as  it  shone  upon  the  bayonets  of  our  advancing  army,  and 
through  the  gushing  tears  of  an  anxious,  suffering,  reviv- 
ing people.  Aye,  and  it  did  glitter  as  it  rose  in  the  high- 
est atmosphere  of  our  achievements,  and  dropped  like  a 
ball  of  fire  upon  the  startled  throne  of  the  royal  tax-gath- 
erer, elevating  complaint  into  statesmanship,  disciplining 
provincial  murmurs  into  national  rights},  rounding  off 
dejected,  disjointed  rebellion  into  vigorous,  hearty,  com- 
pact revolution,  and  reducing  the  lawful  sovereignty  of 
an  oppressive  prince  to  the  meaner  antagonism  of  an  out- 
lawed and  discomforted  innovation.  Thus  for  all  time 
will  this  string  of  generalities  glitter  a  rosary  where 
kneeling  nationalities  shall  tell  their  beads  to  the  holy 
spirit  of  liberty,  as  it  beckons  them  on  to  freedom,  truth, 
and  progress.  It  is  for  this  that  thirty-three  States  turn 
their  faces  towards  that  grave  to-day.  It  is  for  this  that 
the  grateful  tear  rolls  down  Pennsylvania's  iron  cheek, 
and  California  bends  here  in  spirit  her  golden  knee.  It  is 
for  this  that  Maine  and  Georgia  nod  their  acquiescing 
pines,  and  the  kid  glove  of  the  Fifth  Avenue,  and  the 
hard,  bare  hand  fresh  from  the  crash  of  a  frontier  oak, 
clasp  in  concurrent  pressure  over  the  benefactor  of  all. 

Why  else  is  it,  that  the  powder  and  panegyric  of  the 
past  have  not  exhausted  the  enthusiasm  for  this  day  ? 
Why  else  does  the  rocket  of  oratory  still  stream  into  the 
heaven  of  this  inspiring  theme,  and  breaking  into  stars  of 
eulogy,  fall  like  the  early  blessing  in  golden  showers,  upon 
ever  receding  and  advancing  anniversaries  ?  Has  not  this 
day,  too,  helped  to  mould  that  Constitutional  bullet  which 
is  now  tearing  its  mangled  way  along  the  broken  columns 
of  the  oppressors  of  Italy?  And  does  not  the  Franco- 
Sardinian  triumph  pause  and  part  its  bleeding  ranks,  that 
the  healing  spirit  of  this  day  may  pass  through,  to  cheer 
and  sanctify  a  kindred  purgation  ? 


24  ORATION  AT   THE 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  spirit  of  this  Declaration, 
so  brave,  so  thoughtful,  so  appropriate,  would  have  seemed 
aught  else  than  an  ambitious  paradox,  had  not  the  blade 
of  "Washington  gleamed  in  front  of  it,  and  the  sturdy  forti- 
tude of  the  people  bristled  behind  it ;  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  even  then,  with  the  dead  all  buried,  and  the  foe 
all  gone,  swords  dropped,  heads  raised,  the  embraces,  the 
congratulations,  and  the  huzzas  for  a  common  flag  un- 
furled, and  a  common  hope  secured,  I  do  not  say  that 
even  then,  there  would  have  been  anything  in  the  specta- 
cle, but  a  fine  embarrassment,  a  successful  discord,  a  wide- 
reaching  sense  of  something  gained,  but  nothing  sure,  had 
not  our  ancestors  wisely  conceived  that  a  flying,  acquiesc- 
ing enemy  was  only  one  side  of  a  true  battle ;  that  there 
is  a  constructing  as  well  as  a  destroying  element  in  all 
substantial  victories;  that  a  people  who  would  retain 
calmly  and  permanently  the  elevation  reached  through 
mere  temporary  excitement  of  mere  physical  effort,  must 
be  capable  of  forbearance  as  well  as  assault;  must  be 
lovers  of  peace  as  well  as  heroes  of  war ;  must  be  ever 
ready  with  the  thought  before  the  blow ;  must  feel  deeply, 
and  feel  habitually  and  practically  the  necessity  for  order, 
for  intelligence,  for  obedience  to  law,  for  patience  in  bear- 
ing with  trials  as  well  as  hope  in  looking  for  blessings, 
whose  alternating  possibilities  so  cheer  and  imperil  the 
life  of  a  new  truth. 

To  secure  all  this,  much  was  to  be  accomplished,  and 
something  to  be  forborne.  A  wise  people  will  remember, 
in  constructing  a  new  system,  how  much  of  the  old  diffi- 
culty deserves  to  be  respected,  how  much  of  the  past  must 
be  dropped,  how  much  of  the  future  should  be  anticipated 
and  incorporated  into  a  government  destined  to  be  admin- 
istered widely  and  permanently,  for  many  equal  sovereign- 
ties, with  their  sharp,  watchful,  local  life,  their  ever- 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  25 

changing  politics,  their  sectional  antagonisms  and  their 
varied  conflicts  of  peaceful  but  perplexing  interests,  look- 
ing to  this  wide,  general,  federal  life,  for  the  harmonizing 
element,  which  should  mould  them  into  one  common 
brotherhood  of  feeling  and  fortune,  at  once  the  umpire  of 
their  differences,  and  the  symbol  of  their  nationality.  To 
achieve  such  a  consummation  at  such  a  period,  divides,  if 
it  does  not  distance,  all  the  glory  of  the  battles  that  pre- 
ceded it.  Not  that  we  would  or  could  underrate  the 
merits  of  that  seven  years'  conflict.  A  war,  intimate  and 
individual,  because  a  war  for  existence  rather  than  policy : 
a  war  with  less  of  the  dignity  of  great  battles  than  the 
dramatic  intensity  of  fugitive  encounters.  A  war  often 
with  only  a  wagon  tongue  for  artillery,  God  for  a  judge, 
and  all  history  for  applause.  A  war  with  bleeding  feet 
for  a  surer  footing,  a  war  that  could  live  upon  a  potatoe 
to  rout  a  king ;  a  war  behind  fences,  behind  barns,  on  the 
old  haystack,  under  the  tottering  shed,  charging  with  a 
regiment  or  a  dog,  hurling  a  brick,  whizzing  a  stool,  de- 
stroying the  harvest,  blighting  the  fruit,  darkening  the 
sun,  anything,  anywhere,  so  it  crush  the  foe,  shatter  the 
wrong,  and  clear  the  land. 

Would  not  such  a  contest  require  more  judgment  in  a 
commander  and  more  nerve  in  the  troops,  where  ambu- 
lance and  ambuscade  rendered  numbers  almost  powerless 
and  tactics  often  useless  ?  To  rush  up  to  an  enemy  with 
miles  of  companions  cheering  on  your  courage,  with  thou- 
sands all  around  you  ready  to  help  you  strike,  and  ready- 
to  help  you  die,  to  be  provided  with  every  camp  and  field 
equipment,  well  fed,  well  clothed,  glittering  with  expen- 
sive armor,  thirsting  for  expectant  booty,  with  all  the 
tramp  and  pomp  of  stirring  drum  and  streaming  flag  and 
rushing  hosts,  to  make  death  look  grand  as  well  as  dread- 
ful, with  such  surroundings  when  the  soldier  sinks  away, 


26  ORATION  AT   THE 

brave  battalions  go  down  with  him,  silken  banners  droop 
lightly  over  him,  and  far-off  tears  fall  for  him,  sad  but  safe 
from  the  ruthless  carnage.  But  when  Freedom  calls  her 
sons  to  battle,  the  fight  is  less  for  victory  than  for  safety. 
It  does  not  wait  always  to  hoard  itself  on  pompous  battle 
fields,  it  has  not  time  always  for  dainty  selections  of  posi- 
tion for  strategical  manoeuvres,  for  reconnaissances,  for 
artistic  feints  and  counter-movements.  It  is  too  busy 
with  nature  to  wait  for  science.  If  it  sees  the  foe,  it  feels 
the  wrong  and  strikes  the  blow,  whether  it  be  to  bleed,  to 
die,  or  to  triumph.  In  mass  or  in  detail,  debouching  or 
encamping,v  asleep  or  awake,  through  burning  sand,  on 
cracking  ice,  over  the  unfathomable,  up  the  inaccessible, 
round  the  impervious,  the  spirit  of  liberty  moves  on  with 
shoeless  feet,  cheering  the  foodless  body  through  the  path- 
less forest.  The  pillar  of  fire  is  there  to  light  the  way, 
the  manna  has  fallen  from  the  approving  heavens,  the  rod 
has  come  to  strike  the  rock,  and  as  the  dying  patriot's 
life-blood  ebbs  away,  his  glazed  eye  sees  the  martyr's 
crown  descending.  He  fights  not  for  fame,  for  adventure, 
for  family  compacts,  for  old  traditions,  or  new  acquisi- 
tions, for  Hapsburg,  Guelph,  or  Romanoff.  He  strikes 
for  his  home,  his  shop,  his  farm,  his  blushing  bride,  his 
prattling  babe,  the  grassplat  where  he  rolled  when  a  boy, 
the  old  family  Bible,  the  tin-cup  by  the  well,  the  smile, 
the  ease,  the  calm  of  sure  possession,  the  right  to  speak 
when  he  thinks  it,  and  to  do  right  when  he  knows  it. 
This  is  not  a  mere  war.  but  an  insurrection  of  humanity  to 
readjust  the  lost  harmony  of  creation.  Yet  wars  for  free- 
dom are  common  wars.  Every  nation  under  the  sun  has 
fought  them  and  won  them  at  some  period  of  their  lives. 
Have  not  the  passive  nations,  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark, 
and  Scandinavia;  have  not  the  wild  notes  of  freedom 
rung  through  the  Cymbric  forests  and  awakened  the 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  27 

earlier  but  less  degenerate  German,  from  the  gloom  of  his 
paralyzing  dynastic  metaphysics?  Have  not  the  sensa- 
tional nations,  have  not  France  and  Spain  and  Italy  and 
even  wiltering  turbaned.  Turkey,  with  the  loaded  muzzle 
of  the  Slavonic  gun  at  her  breast,  have  not  and  do  not  all 
•these  taste  the  sweet  waters  of  self-won  independent 
national  life?  Has  not  shivering  Poland  and  melting 
Hayti  and  silver-veined,  blood-freckled  Mexico  unfurled 
to  different  zones  a  humanizing  as  well  as  a  depraving,  a 
gracious  as  well  as  a  ghastly  epoch,  of  E  Pluribus  TJnum  ? 

Do  we  point  to  the  bleeding  feet,  the  empty  purse,  the 
powerful  foe,  and  the  undeveloped  strength  of  the  coun- 
try, as  the  test  of  superior  results  with  adverse  means, 
but  does  not  the  poor,  hardy  Briton  contend  for  ages 
against  Roman,  Scot,  and  Dane,  and  did  not  the  Caliph 
Omar  conquer  all  Asia  on  barley  water  ?  What  then  sets 
the  broad,  common  seal  of  universal  applause  upon  us  ? 
It  is  that  having  won  independence,  we  organized  the 
victory  into  a  destiny,  instead  of  permitting  it  to  evaporate 
into  a  tradition.  After  the  battle  over  the  enemy,  we 
conquered  ourselves.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  we 
merely  framed  a  constitution,  that  was  commendable,  but 
that  was  also  usual. 

France  constructed  beautiful  theories  of  government. 
The  Abbe  Sieyes'  pigeon-holes  were  full  of  brilliant  con- 
stitutions. And  is  not  Mexico  gifted  with  a  like  facility 
of  political  expression?  But  did  not  France  and  Mexico 
forget  that  the  constitution  of  the  individual  must  come 
to  the  support  of  the  constitution  of  the  state  ? — "  You 
must  and  you  shan't "  on  paper  is  nothing  without  "  I 
ought  and  I  will "  lies  deep  in  the  heart  and  faith  of  the 
man. 

One  of  the  great  leading  virtues  of  republicanism,  is 
the  moral  abstinence  of  its  leaders,  who  can  avoid  the 


28  ,  ORATION   AT   THE 

temptations  to  overthrow  their  own  great  work,  when 
it  interferes  with  their  own  love  of  office.  This  selfish 
thirst  for  prominence,  this  intense  personal  egotism  which 
thinks  "  I "  so  necessary  to  the  state,  a  weakness  as  tell- 
ing in  war,  as  it  is  threatening  and  embarrassing  under 
the  calm,  wise  rotation  of  official  life.  Did  it  not  help 
to  destroy  French  liberty  by  confusing  and  over-working 
French  glory  ?  Was  not  the  Mexican  constitution  of  1824 
in  the  main  a  liberal,  genial  moulding  of  its  national  life, 
and  was  not  the  first  term  of  the  chief  office  the  last  free- 
working  of  the  instrument  ?  Why  ?  Because  the  end  of 
official  victory  was  the  beginning  of  personal  treachery. 
Because  the  animal  lave  of  pelf  came  before  the  thought- 
ful remembrance  of  right,  and  when  the  ballot  dropped 
the  candidate,  the  candidate  seized  the  bayonet  to  pierce 
the  ballot ;  forgetting  that  his  country  was  greater,  his 
glory  surer,  his  interest  more  secure,  and  his  children 
certain  of  a  prouder  inheritance,  by  obeying  that  ballot, 
than  could  be  secured  through  any  temporary  ascendency 
of  successful  treason. 

The  difference  between  American  liberty  and  the 
liberty  which  other  nations  have  attempted,  is  the  differ- 
ence between  patience  and  self-denial,  in  waiting  for  the 
fair  working  of  a  system  independent  of  all  personal 
defeats,  and  that  selfish  liberty  which  concludes  a  system 
exploded,  because  a  man  or  measure  is  for  a  time  unsuc- 
cessful. When  an  American  loses  his  office  he  keeps  his 
temper.  If  he  goes  home  disappointed  he  is  not  disaffect- 
ed. If  troops  are  to  be  summoned  they  consist  of  well- 
mounted  arguments.  If  banners  are  to  wave,  they  glisten 
with  the  issues  of  the  next  contest.  A  better  sagacity 
teaches  him  his  truest  revenge  is  in  watching  and  expos- 
ing the  defects  in  the  policy  or  powers  of  his  successful 
adversary.  This  revenge  is  mounted  upon  a  stump, 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  29 

buried  in  an  article,  passed  in  a  resolution,  and  diffused 
in  intense  hand-bills  through  the  land,  where  thought 
may  resolve  the  truth,  and  opinion  decide  the  contest. 
Thus  the  system  lives,  power  rotates,  and  America  is  safe. 
Not  that  we  are  exempt  from  any  and  all  the  vices  of 
other  nations, — not  that  we  do  not  love  money  equal  to 
the  Jew,  and  power  as  much  as  the  Hapsburg, — not  but 
we  have  jurists  that  misconstrue  the  statute,  and  officials 
who  degrade  their  office,  great  crimes  and  little  mean- 
nesses which  no  civil  system  shall  pluck  from  this  human 
system.  But  we  possess  the  virtue  to  keep  those  vices  in 
constitutional  subjection  to  law,  to  public  sentiment,  and 
the  original  compact.  And  when  vices  are  thus  repressed 
within  the  limits  of  personal  responsibility  without 
molesting  a  better  development,  then  democratic  America, 
independent  of  all  incidental  weaknesses,  has  taken  one 
great  step  towards  the  improvement  and  elevation  of  the 
human  race. 

It  is  the  fashion  of  some  brilliant  European  satirists  to 
ask  what  has  the  great  Eepublic  accomplished  besides 
geography  and  gasconade.  Your  pride  dilates,  your 
population  increases,  and  your  empire  widens,  but  does 
truth  expand  with  them  ?  You  build  fine  ships,  you  raise 
good  cotton,  and  play  a  strong  game  of  chess,  but  is  order 
as  well  preserved  as  in  France,  has  opinion  as  fair  play 
as  in  England,  are  not  high  taxes  and  low  morals,  grog- 
bought  votes,  light  fingers  and  heavy  speeches,  the  laws 
of  your  political  life?  Where  is  that  millennium  of  mo- 
tives, that  approximation  to  perfection  promised  by  free 
institutions  ?  Democracy  means  perfection  no  more  than 
revolution  in  government  means  revolution  in  human 
nature.  Our  democracy  does  not  pretend  to  reconstruct 
the  human  mind,  but  it  removes  the  hereditary  power, 
crushing  excuse  for  not  reconstructing  itself.  It  says  to 


30  ORATION-  AT   THE     ' 

the  individual  life  and  to  the  national  life,  I  have  removed 
the  great  central  hinderance  to  Ivhe  liberal  development 
of  your  thoughts  and  interests.  I  have  purged  your  land 
of  imperial  self-elected  arbiters;  I  have  thrown  open 
every  attainable  position  to  your  ambition,  your  industry, 
your  genius  and  your  sense  of  duty.  If  the  humblest 
man  keep  the  law  he  shall  help  to  make  the  law,  and  to 
rise  by  the  law.  If  the  greatest  man  break  the  law  he 
shall  feel  and  fall  by  the  compact  outraged,  the  truth  for- 
gotten, and  the  boon  forfeited.  Would  you  be  great 
among  the  nations,  great  among  yourselves,  true  before 
God,  and  the  progress  for  which  you  are  striving  ?  Would 
you  justify  this  radical  deviation  from  the  established 
systems  of  the  older  nations  ?  Would  you  leave  anarchy 
no  chance,  tyranny  no  plea,  envy  no  sneer,  then  let  the 
shivered  dream  of  disappointed  Europe  be  the  sweet 
realization  of  successful  America.  Raise  yourselves  up 
to  the  level  of  the  good  man's  hope,  above  the  range  of 
the  bad  man's  logic.  Read,  think,  watch,  work,  pray 
and  wait.  Accept  all  men's  thoughts,  reject  all  men's 
chains.  While  you  refuse  England's  tax  invoke  Eng- 
land's genius.  Call  on  Shakespeare's  deep  heart  and 
brain,  born  for  Lion,  Lily,  Shamrock,  Thistle,  or  Eagle, 
sinking  so  mysteriously  into  the  whole  reflective  life  of 
humanity — call  on  Milton,  who  shall  come  to  you  with  a 
deep  strength  that  shall  do  its  part  in  making  this  liberty 
a  paradise  regained,  as  to  other  nations  it  has  ever  been 
a  paradise  lost.  Call  on  the  Apostles  fresh  from  com- 
muning with  a  God.  Their  faith  and  their  love  shall  be 
the  arches  of  your  own  amelioration.  Let  science  that 
disciplines,  and  trade  that  sharpens,  and  art,  and  poetry, 
and  eloquence  which  warm  and  beautify  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  through  which  you  are  passing, — let  all  these 
and  the  failures,  and  the  little  weaknesses  that  add  to  the 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEKSON.  31 

common  experiences,  and  the  great  examples  which  stir 
life's  better  moments, — let  the  example  of  Washington, 
whose  calm  features  invoke  you  as  they  lie  looking  out 
from  every  letter  sent,  from  every  letter  received,  a  per- 
petual admonition  that  your  confidential  as  well  as  your 
open  purposes  be  pure  and  patriotic, — let  the  good  and 
true  of  all  times  and  regions,  despite  of  boundary,  pass- 
port or  clanship,  pour  their  vast  wealth  of  help  into  the 
advancing  march  of  this  hopeful,  possible  experiment 
of  American  liberty.  This  is  what  democracy  promises, 
justice  demands,  and  humanity  deserves.  Our  democracy 
then  is  non-intervention.  Keep  off  others  while  you 
help  yourselves. 

It  is  the  fortune  of  our  political  system  that  the  avail- 
able intelligence  of  the  country  has  increased  more  rapid- 
ly than  the  evils  inseparable  from  the  existence  of  an 
unrestrained  liberty  of  thought  and  action.  Before  the 
licentiousness  of  the  press  came  the  healthful  freedom  of 
the  press.  Anterior  to  official  corruption,  there  presided 
over  public  employment  a  spirit  purified  by  the  memory 
of  its  sufferings,  and  which  prompted  the  "holders  of 
public  trusts  to  become  rather  the  tutors  than  the  robbers 
of  those  who  confided  in  them.  The  moral  side  of  our 
adversity  has  raised  the  community  of  these  States  above 
and  beyond  the  degenerating  influences  of  our  prosperity ; 
official  life  is  no  longer  the  leading  life,  because  it  has 
dissevered  thought  from  place,  and  has  ceased  to  satisfy 
the  mental  cravings  of  the  unofficial  intelligence  that  has 
grown  up  silently  but  solidly  beyond  it. 

Notwithstanding  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
every  man  must  bend  his  knee  to  some  one  ;  yet  you  will 
seldom  hear  those  hinges  creaking  to  a  mere  "  Honorable," 
or  "  Excellency."  A  good  preacher,  a  brilliant  lecturer, 
has  more  personal  influence  than  a  President  of  the 


32  OBATION  AT   THE 

United  States.  And  he  keeps  longer  possession  of  that 
better  White  House,  a  substantial  duty-domed  apprecia- 
tion. In  early  days  politics  were  respected  for  what  they 
had  achieved,  now  they  are  tolerated  for  what  they  sug- 
gest. The  earlier  founders  are  gone,  the  later  and  pro- 
founder  interpreters  have  sunk  away  without  leaving 
hardly  an  heir,  or  a  ghost,  to  their  intellectual  thrones. 
These  gigantic  elevations  have  disappeared  to  be  repro- 
duced in  the  average  elevation  of  the  nation.  Denuded 
of  her  great  men,  America  falls  back  upon  the  general 
splendor  of  her  destiny.  No  longer  relying  upon  the 
gifts  of  a  few  superiors,  she  works  more  and  worships  less. 
To  you,  O  Yirginians !  in  times  past  was  soon  com- 
mitted the  milk,  the  brain  and  the  spear  of  this  democ- 
racy. Your  Washington  achieved  it;  your  Jefferson 
expounded  it ;  your  Madison  and  your  Monroe  admin- 
istered, strengthened  and  distributed  it  to  new  eras  and 
to  new  States,  the  bread  and  Bible  of  their  expanding 
political  life.  If  Yirginia  has  been  content  with  this 
deeper  glory — if  she  has  forgotten  to  grasp,  in  her  ability 
to  teach — if,  for  the  ship  of  State,  she  has  neglected  all 
other  shipping,  and  like  those  gifted  spirits  who  have 
been  too  busy  with  thought  to  load  the  body  with  jewelry 
and  laces,  then  has  she  at  least  a  share  in  the  glory  of  the 
material  grandeur  that  encompasses  her  more  bustling 
sister  States.  If  New  York  city  has  accumulated  more 
gold,  does  not  Yirginia's  earlier  soul  put  the  pulse  into 
those  dumb-shining  power-gods,  and  make  them  throb 
with  a  truer  value.  We  have  streets  that  could  buy 
States,  and  alleys  that  might  purchase  Territories.  In 
this  western  world,  Wall  Street  is  the  fiscal  crutch  upon 
which  lame  Commonwealths  limp  to  fortune.  But  is  not 
Yirginia  the  moral  bosom  from  whence  America  draws 
the  nerve  and  the  nourishment  of  her  loftier  fate  ? 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS   JEFFEKSON.  33 

Like  the  sun,  New  York  capital  penetrates  every 
crevice  of  the  confederacy,  gleaming  through  the  forest 
leaves  and  along  the  hunter's  track,  stopping  the  fire  of 
the  prairie  with  the  fire  of  its  own  circulation,  and  hush- 
ing the  cry  of  the  panther  and  the  wolf  in  the  safer  roar 
of  legitimate  trade.  Does  it  not  build  cities,  launch 
navies,  send  the  warm  heart  of  philanthropy  shivering 
into  the  Arctic  circle,  where  this  ever  restless  capital  feels 
with  its  golden  hand,  among  the  lonely  ices  of  the  North, 
for  the  lost  navigator  of  England?  And  yet,  has  not 
Virginia's  thought  and  heart,  not  only  sought  for,  but 
found  that  lost  navigator  of  humanity  and  the  world,  the 
truth  which  has  made  love  and  happiness  possible  through 
a  wisely  guarded  liberty  ? 

How  poor  and  cheap  seem  the  rich  man's  wealth,  and 
the  pioneer's  axe  and  muscle — how  weak  and  inefficient 
all  the  tools  and  the  toils  of  settlement,  clearing  a  copse, 
dodging  a  tomahawk,  breaking  a  plough,  losing  a  wife  or 
a  crop — how  unrecompensed  the  loss,  if  Virginia's  charter 
is  not  there  to  cheer  and  chasten  the  vicissitude ;  if  such 
sweet  music  as  the  Declaration  and  the  Farewell  Address 
break  not  once  a  year  upon  the  new  atmosphere  to  edu- 
cate the  emigrant's  ear,  his  heart  and  his  child,  to  do  their 
part  in  the  building  up  and  advancing  of  this  multiplied 
galaxy  of  sovereignties.  Yet  Virginia  is  not  merely  a 
great  memory,  her  present  facts  lie  bold  and  beautiful  all 
around  us.  This  lovely  scenery  is  full  of  them ;  your  up- 
lands covered  so  unusually  high  with  available  soil ;  your 
fertile  valleys  that  hoard  all  the  descending  nourishment 
of  the  Alleghanies,  that  boundless  mineral  wealth,  which 
near  and  distant  enterprises  are  plotting  to  pluck  from 
the  depths  of  your  western  ranges  ;  while  from  a  thousand 
intersecting  angles  innumerable  water  courses  are  spark- 
ling and  bounding,  and  calling  with  all  their  passionate 
3 


34  ORATION   AT   THE 

poetry  of  liquid  utterance  for  the  wheels  that  shall  turn 
their  beauty  to  good1  account.  And  does  not  the  increase 
of  plank  and  rail  roads  projected  and  accomplished,  tell  of 
the  newly  awakened  energy  of  the  people,  and  point  to  an 
early  removal  of  those  temporary  obstacles  to  an  extend- 
ed and  equally  diffused  prosperity  ? 

And  now,  after  all  that  has  been  uttered  and  hoped 
of  this  4th  of  July,  what  invoking  influence  has  it  upon 
the  people?  After  all  the  logic,  the  sentiment,  the 
exhaustive  analysis,  the  broad  reach  of  national  duties 
enjoined,  the  near  possession  of  personal  rights  commended, 
the  imagery,  and  the  pathos  with  which  genius  and  grati- 
tude have  gorged  this  heroic  hour,  does  it  really  tone  and 
admonish  the  advancing  fortunes  of  this  nation  ?  are  we 
a  wiser  and  better  community  for  its  coming  ?  Does  it 
drop  its  wholesome  example  of  love  and  faith  into  the 
unseen  rills  of  private  conduct,  purifying  both  business 
and  pleasure?  Does  it  pour  its  glorious  examples  of 
courage,  magnanimity  and  self-sacrifice  into  the  wider 
channels  of  public  achievement,  winging  our  leaders  to  a 
loftier  patriotism,  and  so  chastening  the  temptations  which 
beset  them,  that  purity  and  honesty  shall  become  the 
most  fascinating  forms  of  prominent  endeavor  ?  As  the 
earlier  and  the  earnest  Fourth  recedes,  will  not  the  daz- 
zling glare  of  a  rapidly  expanding  success  by  degrees  efface 
the  instructive  gloom  of  the  past,  until  the  later  Fourth 
retains  only  the  noise  without  the  moral,  the  cracker 
without  the  flash  of  high  warning  ? 

Is  not  every  individual  freeman  by  nature  a  despot, 
and  is  not  freedom  really  the  promptings  of  a  disappoint- 
ed love  of  tyranny,  that  writhes  to  see  the  one  despot 
enjoy  what  all  crave  but  cannot  share  ?  Is  not  ~New  Eng- 
land with  her  overwhelming  anti-slavery  majority,  the 
bitterest  slave-driver,  when  she  emigrates  southward  ; 


TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEBSON.  35 

and  do  they  not  say  that  Howard  the  philanthropist  was 
exacting  in  his  own  household  ? 

The  salvation  of  our  system  so  far  is,  that  wealth  does 
not  act  in  politics,  and  therefore  it  cannot  plot ;  while 
wealth  only  thinks  in  trade,  it  may  be  sharp,  narrow  and 
selfish,  but  it  is  not  dangerous  to  the  State,  because  it 
does  not  attempt  to  corrupt  the  State.  Its  money  bags 
during  the  rich  man's  life  are  but  the  harmless  furniture 
of  a  bank  vault,  a  railroad  contract,  and  when  he  dies,  it 
only  sends  a  few  light  headed-heirs  reeling  to  the  Colise- 
um or  the  Boulevard.  But  let  us  imagine  Mr.  Astor 
smitten  with  an  active  persevering  passion  for  politics. 
Shall  I  say,  or  you  say  what  office  he  could  not  buy  ?  If 
a  man  with  one-tenth  of  his  wealth,  and  no  more  intellect, 
could  be  a  Governor  and  a  U.  S.  Senator,  I  do  not  pretend 
to  point  to  the  harbor  his  golden  rudder  would  not  steer 
him  into.  Not  that  corrupt  politicians  for  the  present 
are  anything  but  laughable  nonentities,  with  no  great 
men  to  think  for  them,  and  few  rich  ones  to  pay  for  them, 
yet  the  great  danger  is  that,  with  the  immense  facilities 
for  accumulating  wealth,  a  class  of  rich  intellectual  men 
must  rise  between  the  great  present  strength  of  the  coun- 
try, the  honest  working  man,  and  the  penniless  dema- 
gogue. The  rich  man  too  thoughtful  to  be  idle,  too 
wealthy  to  work,  must  do  something,  and  that  something 
will  be  the  plotting  for  power ;  this  has  ever  been  in  all 
countries  the  destiny  of  that  cHss,  because  politics  is  a 
compromise  between  sensuality  and  literature.  It  has  the 
excitement  of  dissipation  with  the  thoughtfulness  of  a 
mental  effort.  All  experience  proves  that  our  virtues 
thrive  best  upon  a  threatened  competency.  When  we  pos- 
sess enough  to  be  comfortable  but  not  the  overplus  that 
begets  self-sufficiency  and  indifference.  Now  the  mo- 
mentum of  the  old  truth  is  still  upon  us.  The  great 


36       ORATION   AT   THE   TOMB   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 

names  burned  in  fire  ijpon  our  hearts  still  influence  us. 
We  are  a  working  and  acquiring  people.  Idle  wealth 
has  not  yet  begun  to  actively  influence  industry  nor  way- 
lay honesty.  But  must  not  that  dread  day  come,  when 
the  replenishing  element  of  emigration  has  ceased,  when 
the  vast  solitudes  are  exhausted  of  their  fertility  by  the 
drain  of  central  cities,  and  silk  skirts  are  trailed  upon  the 
Hocky  Mountains,  when  those  great  names  of  our  past 
that  look  so  solemn  and  so  beautiful  to  our  present  grati- 
tude shall  be  somewhat  dimmed  by  years,  and  newer  eras 
of  experience,  and  more  dazzling  forms  of  selfishness 
shall  have  brought  by  contrast  distrust  upon  the  existence 
of  Washington ;  are  there  any  elements  or  symptoms  in 
our  present  life  that  give  us  the  right  to  place  ourselves 
above  history,  that  we  shall  not  sink  back  again,  first  to 
demagogues'  dupes,  then  autocrats'  serfs,  as  surely  as  the 
freest  land  touches  at  its  farthest  extremity,  geographically, 
upon  the  despot's  vast  cold  iron  home  ? 

Yet  the  spirit  of  the  day  is  hope  not  history ;  before 
we  reach  that  far  alternative  and  descent,  let  us  believe 
that  new  and  greater  elevations  beckon  to  us  from  the 
mists  of  the  future.  Let  us  believe  that  we  are  to  be  the 
founders  of  purer  races,  discoverers  of  greater  truths,  the 
destroyers  of  evils  that  have  obstructed  the  better  growth 
of  past  ages ;  and  with  the  inspiring  faith  lifting  us  above 
the  meaner  promptings  of  this  material  life,  we  shall  reach 
a  deeper  possibility  of*  deviation  from  the  revolving 
periods  of  decay. 

Then,  if  that  decay  must  come,  He  who  holds  us  in 
the  hollow  of  his  hand  will  but  fold  his  dissolving  children 
more  warmly  to  his  central  bosom,  and  we  shall  feel  how 
good  it  was  for  us  that  the  shadows  of  lesser  worlds  should 
pass  over  us,  and  through  change  make  us  fit  for  the  un- 
changeable. 


SPEECH 


AT  THE 


GREAT  MEETING  IN  UNION  SQUARE, 

APKIL  20TH,  1861. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

THE  iron  hail  at  Fort  Sumter  rattles  on  every  northern 
breast,  and  has  shot  away  the  last  vestige  of  national  and 
personal  forbearance.  A  loaf  of  bread  on  its  way  to  a 
starving  soldier  was  struck  from  his  mouth  by  a  shot  from 
his  own  brother.  You  might  saturate  the  Cotton  States 
with  all  the  turpentine  of  North  Carolina;  you  might 
throw  upon  them  the  vast  pine  forests  of  Georgia,  then 
bury  the  Gulf  storms'  sharpest  lightning  into  the  combusti- 
ble mass,  and  you  would  not  redden  the  southern  horizon 
with  so  angry  a  glow  as  flashed  along  the  Northern  heart 
when  the  flames  of  Fort  Sumter  reached  it.  To-day, 
bewildered  America,  with  her  torn  flag  and  her  broken 
charter,  looks  for  you  to  guard  the  one  and  restore  the 
other.  How  Europe  stares  and  liberty  shudders,  as  from 
State  after  State  that  flag  falls,  and  the  dream  breaks! 
Hereafter  Southern  history  will  be  as  bare  as  the  pole  from 
which  the  sundered  pennant  sinks,  and  treason  parts  with 


38  SPEECH   AT   THE 

the  last  rag  that  concealed  its  hideousness.  I  know  how 
common  and  how  easy  it  was  to  dissolve  the  Union  in  our 
mouths.  Dangerous  words  like  dangerous  places  possess 
a  fearful  fascination,  and  we  have  sometimes  looked  down 
from  the  heights  of  our  prosperity  with  an  irresistible  dis- 
position to  jump  off. 

This  old  ghost  of  disunion  is  at  last  a  verity.  For 
years  it  has  been  skulking  semi-officially  about  the  Capitol. 
Through  the  whole  range  of  our  parliamentary  history 
every  great  question,  from  a  tariff  to  a  Territory,  has  felt 
its  clammy  touch.  Did  it  not  drop  its  death's  head  into 
the  tariff  scales  of  '33,  hoping  to  weigh  the  duties  down 
to  a  conciliation  level  ?  Did  it  not  shoot  its  ghastly  logic 
into  the  storm  of  '20,  and  frighten  our  soundest  statesman- 
ship into  that  crude  calm  called  the  Missouri  Compromise  ? 
Did  it  not  sit  grinning  upon  the  deck  of  all  our  naval 
battles,  hoping  to  get  a  turn  at  the  wheel,  that  it  might 
run  the  war  of  1812  upon  a  rock?  Did  it  not  stand  up 
upon  the  floor  of  Congress  and  shake  its  bony  finger  in 
the  calm  face  of  WASHINGTON?  And  did  not  our  fathers, 
who  stood  unmoved  the  shock  of  George  the  Third's 
cannon,  shudder  in  the  presence  of  this  spectre,  when  they 
thought  how  the  infant  Kepublic  might  be  cast  away  upon 
its  bleak  and  milkless  breast  ?  Then  it  was  a  thin,  skulk- 
ing, hatchet-faced  ghost,  living  on  the  crust  of  partial  local 
politics ;  at  last,  fed  upon  the  granaries  of  Northern  and 
Southern  fanaticism,  it  has  come  to  be  a  rotund,  well-fed, 
corpulent  disaster.  Southern  passion  may  put  on  war- 
paint ;  Southern  statesmanship  may  attempt  to  organize  a 
pique  into  an  empire,  to  elevate  a  sulk  into  a  sacrament, 
by  marrying  disappointment  to  revolution  and  reducing  a 
temporary  constitutional  minority  into  a  hopeless  organic 
political  disaster,  yet  Northern  interests  and  Northern  pride 
will  never,  while  there  is  a  dollar  to.  spend  or  an  arm  to 


.     GREAT   MEETING  IN   UNION   SQUARE.  39 

strike,  acquiesce  in  the  disruption  of  this  world-envied, 
God-favored.,  and  gulf-bound  Confederacy. 

Talk  of  the  wise  statesmanship  of  the  South !  Had 
they  allowed  Kansas  to  become  a  Free  State,  without  that 
vindictive  imperiousness  of  opposition  which  proclaimed 
them  to  be  quite  as  much  opposed  to  Free  Government  as 
to  Free  Soil,  Jeff  &  Co.  would  have  been  in  possession  of 
the  National  Government  at  this  moment.  Although  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  awoke  the  North  from 
its  deep  sleep  upon  the  slave  question,  yet  the  most  eco- 
nomical outlay  of  prudence  would  have  continued  them 
in  possession  of  the  Government  for  an  indefinite  future. 
Then  Mexico  would  have  been  possible  without  the  awful 
leap  which  copies  her  morals  without  the  hope  of  possess- 
ing her  territories.  South  Carolina  once  lived  upon  a 
potato  to  rout  a  king,  and  she  is  fast  going  back  to  that 
immortal  vegetable,  in  order  to  crown  a  fallacy.  Our 
Republicanism  means  the  whole  nation,  or  it  means 
nothing.  Together  the  parts  temper  each  other,  asunder 
the  aristocracy  of  the  slave  power  makes  equality  a  myth, 
and  the  free  radical  North  less  safely  Democratic. 

You  may  break  friendship,  break  hearts,  and  call 
conventions  to  break  laws,  but  nature  stands  and  runs  on 
through  the  gap  you  have  made  with  tongue  or  pen. 
What !  split  the  Blue  Ridge  that  joins  Pennsylvania  to 
Virginia!  No  Mississippi  winding  through  our  States! 
No  Gulf  wave  moaning  on  our  sadd-beach  !  No  sugar- 
cane sweetening  our  landscape ! 

When  the  South  seceded,  not  a  contract  made  for  the 
meanest  consideration  in  the  farthest  Northern  village,  but 
feels  and  is  wronged  by  an  act  which  withdraws  the  great 
enfolding  area  of  the  Union  from  its  promised  and  univer- 
sally supposed  protection.  If  Washington  is  to  be  no 
longer  known  as  the  successful  contender  for  a  combined 


40  SPEECH   AT   THE 

and  self-regulating  nationality ;  if  Bishop  Berkeley's  star 
of  empire  lias  crumbled  away  into  belligerent  asteroids, 
and  we  are  to  fall,  like  Caesar,  at  the  base  of  this  black 
Pompey's  pillar — we  shall  at  least  go  into  this  holy  battle 
for  the  Constitution  with  no  law  broken,  and  no  national 
duty  unfulfilled.  We  have  not  stolen  a  single  ship,  or  a 
pound  of  powder,  or  a  dollar  of  coin  to  sully  the  sacred 
tramp  with  which  patriotism  pursues  robbery  and  rebel- 
lion. All  the  ills  of  the  South  could  have  been  remedied 
within  the  Constitution — all  their  wrongs  righted  by  the 
victory  of  future  votes.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  Secession 
means  ? 

It  means  ambition  in  the  Southern  leaders  and  misap- 
prehension in  the  Southern  people.  Its  policy  is  to 
imperialize  slavery,  and  to  degrade  and  destroy  the  only 
free  Republic  in  the  world.  It  is  a  fog  of  the  brain,  and 
a  poison  at  the  heart.  Dodging  the  halter,  it  walks  upon 
a  volcano  which  may  explode  if  ever  a  law-loving  people 
are  driven  to  extremes  in  maintaining  its  own  national 
life.  We  have  not  come  here  to  talk  up  a  man,  but  keep 
up  a  flag;  not  to  vindicate  a  creed,  but  nullify  a  crime  ; 
not  to  seek  the  falling  fruits  of  patronage,  but  to  save  the' 
beautiful  and  wide-spreading  tree  upon  which  all  our 
blessings  grow.  Party  and  partyisms  are  dead ;  only  grim, 
black  powder  is  alive  now.  Who  talks  of  Tammany  or 
Mozart  Hall?  Who  haunts  the  coalhole  or  the  wood- 
pile, when  all  our  soul's  fuel  is  on  fire  for  flag  and  country  ? 

Did  not  Washington  fight  seven  years,  break  ice  on  the 
Delaware,  break  bones  and  pull  triggers  on  Monmouth 
field,  send  ten  thousand  bleeding  feet  to  where  no  blood 
ever  comes,  and  pass  from  clouds  of  smoke  to  archways  of 
flowers — for  what?  That  States  should  defy  their  best 
guardian,  which  is  the  nation,  insult  history,  and  make 
Republicanism  impossible  ? 


GREAT   MEETING   IN   UNION   SQUARE.  41 

Here  in  this  city  of  our  love  and  pride,  this  cradle  of 
the  civil  life  of  WASHINGTON,  where  despotism  sheathed 
its  last  sword  and  constitutional  liberty  swore  its  first  oath ; 
where  steam  first  boiled  its  way  to  a  throne,  and  art,  and 
commerce,  and  finance,  and  all  the  social  amenities 
marshalled  their  forces  to  the  sweet  strain  of  the  first 
Inaugural — here,  where  government  began  and  capital 
centres,  is  the  sheet-anchor  of  American  loyalty.  Nothing 
so  disappoints  secession  as  the  provoking  fidelity  of  New 
York  to  the  Constitution. 

Jeff  expected  to  pay  his  army  in  Wall  Street,  and 
pick  up  a  secessionist  under  every  lamp-post.  Fifty 
thousand  men  to-day  tread  on  this  fallacy.  Gold  is 
healthy,  gold  is  loyal,  gold  is  determined ;  it  flows  easy 
because  the  war  is  not  to  -subject  or  injure  any  one,  but  to 
bring  back  within  the  protecting  folds  of  the  Constitution 
an  erring  and  rebellious  brother ;  a  brother  whom  we  have 
trusted  and  toasted,  fought  with  side  by  side  on  the  battle- 
field, voted  for  at  the  ballot-box,  showered  honor  after 
honor  upon  his  recreant  head,  while  that  brother  was 
poisoning  the  milk  in  his  mother's  breast  and  striking  a 
parricidal  blow  at  a  paternal  Government  which  has 
protected  and  prospered  us  all  as  no  people  were  ever  so 
prospered  and  protected.  Heretofore  in  our  differences 
we  have  shouldered  ballots  instead  of  bayonets.  With  a 
quiet  bit  of  paper  in  our  hands  we  have  marched  safely 
through  a  hundred  battles  about  tariff,  bank,  anti-liquor, 
anti-rent,  and  all  those  social  and  political  questions  about 
which  a  free  people  may  amicably  differ.  If  slavery  can- 
not be  appeased  with  the  old  life  of  the  ballot,  depend 
upon  it  the  bayonet  will  only  pierce  new  wounds  in  its 
history.  We  have  heretofore  kept  all  our  lead  moulded 
into  type,  that  peaceably  and  intellectually  we  might 
enter  the  Southern  brain,  until  passion  and  precipitation 


42  SPEECH  AT   THE 

have  forced  us  to  melt  down  that  type  into  a  less  friendly 
visitor. 

Kossuth  says  that  bayonets  think,  and  ours  have  re- 
solved in  solemn  convention  to  think  deeply,  act  prompt- 
ly, and  end  victoriously. 

Do  you  wonder  to-day  to  see  that  flag  flying  over  all 
our  reawaked  national  life,  no  longer  monopolized  by 
mast-head,  steeple,  or  liberty-pole,  but  streaming  forth  a 
camp  signal  from  every  private  hearthstone,  breaking  out 
in  love-pimples  all  down  our  garments,  running  like  wild 
vine-flowers  over  whole  acres  of  compact  anxious  citizen- 
ship ?  Why  has  that  tender  maiden  turned  her  alabaster 
hands  into  heroic  little  flag-staffs,  which,  with  no  loss  of 
modesty,  unveils  to  the  world  her  deep  love  of  country  2 
Do  you  see  that  infant  tottering  under  rosettes,  and 
swathed  in  the  national  emblem  by  foreboding  parents, 
who  would  protect  its  growth  with  this  holy  talisman  of 
safety  ?  Do  you  see,  too,  those  grave  old  citizens,  sharpened 
by  gain-seeking,  and  sobered  with  law-expounding,  invade 
their  plain  exterior  peacock  hues,  which  proclaim  such 
tenacity  to  a  flag  that  has  fanned,  like  an  angel's  wing, 
every  form  of  our  prosperity  and  pride  ? 

It  seems  hard  for  philosophy  to  divine  how  any  section 
of  the  country,  so  comprehensively  prosperous,  could  allow 
a  mean  jealousy  of  another  portion  a  little  more  wealthy 
and  populous  to  so  hurry  it  on  into  rebellion,  not  against 
us,  but  a  common  Government  and  a  common  glory,  to 
which  both  are  subject  and  both  should  love. 

Does  not  each  State  belong  to  all  the  States,  and  should 
not  all  the  States  be  a  help  and  a  guide  to  each  State? 
Louisiana's  sugar  drops  into  Ohio's  tea-cup,  and  should 
not  every  palace  built  on  the  Fifth  Avenue  nod  its  head 
amicably  to  whatever  cotton  receipts  its  bills  ?  Over-pride 
of  locality  has  been  the  scourge  of  our  nationality. 


GREAT   MEETING  IN   UNION   SQUARE.  43 

When  our  thirty-one  stars  broke  on  the  3$orth  Star, 
did  not  Texas  as  well  as  Pennsylvania  light  up  the  bleak 
arctic  sky  ? 

When  the  old  flag  first  rose  over  the  untouched  gold 
of  California,  did  not  Georgia  and  New  York  join  hands 
in  unveiling  the  tempting  ore  ? 

Virginia  has  seceded,  and  carried  with  it  my  political 
fathers,  Washington  and  Jefferson.  The  State  has  allowed 
their  tombs  to  crumble  as  well  as  their  principles.  Out- 
law their  sod  !  Who  will  dare  to  ask  me  for  my  passport 
at  the  grave  of  Washington  ? 


SPEECH 


AT  THE 


WAK  MEETING  IN  UNION  SQUAKE, 

JULY  15TH,  1862. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

IN  this  hour  of  alienation,  tumult,  and  disaster,  no 
man,  however  humble,  has  a  right  to  sit  still  when  the 
nation  has  sprung  to  its  feet,  and  the  Union  lies  bleeding 
upon  its  back. 

"We  have  come  here  in  the  darkest  hour  of  national 
existence  to  declare  before  the  world  that  the  unity  and 
nationality  of  America  shall  not  be  dissolved,  either  in  the 
swamps  of  the  Chickahominy  or  the  Council  Chambers  of 
Paris  or  London.  We  are  all,  under  moral  martial  law, 
now  bound  to  obey  every  draft  upon  the  brain,  the  heart, 
the  purse,  and  the  life,  to  serve  a  Government  whose 
authority  has  dropped  upon  us  with  the  gentleness  of  a 
flower,  and  yet  shielded  us  with  the  strength  of  a  giant. 
We  may  have  our  weaknesses,  and  these  weaknesses  may 
serve  to  point  an  English  sneer,  or  round  a  Southern 
taunt ;  but  they  never  yet  have  succeeded  in  vitiating  the 
grander  points  of  our  national  character,  neither  have 


46  SPEECH  AT  THE 

they,  for  one  moment,  obstructed  the  beneficent  action  of 
our  hitherto  unassailable  institutions. 

If  secession  is  right,  then  all  order,  all  regulated  society, 
is  wrong.  If  secession  cannot  be  put  down  without  war, 
then  war  is  the  highest  duty  and  best  business  of  the 
American  citizen — more  profitable  than  merchandise, 
more  beautiful  than  poetry,  and,  for  the  time  being,  as 
sacred  as  the  ministry  itself.  True,  we  may  fail  some- 
times ;  so  do  all  business  and  sciences  until  experience 
teaches  them.  By  degress  we  shall  learn  the  art  of  blood, 
and  mayhap  the  foe  will  find  the  Yankee  shop-boy  an 
efficient  chronic  portable  slaughter-house.  So  far  we  have 
fought  half  tiger  and  half  brother.  No  half  man  accom- 
plishes much.  "We  must  be  all  tiger  now,  that  we  may  be 
all  brothers  by  and  by. 

If  fevers  and  blunders  have  wasted  the  strength  and 
tampered  with  the  glory  of  our  armies,  the  beautiful 
enthusiasm  of  this  day's  proceedings  illustrates  how 
heartily  and  abundantly  we  try  to  redeem  our  errors  and 
relieve  our  heroes.  "Was  it  not  a  sublime  spectacle  to  see 
the  President  of  the  United  States  pouring  the  balm  of  his 
sympathizing  Presidential  presence  in  the  serried  ranks 
of  the  wearied  army  of  the  Potomac — ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
confronting  GEO.  B.  McCi.ELLAN?  The  embodied  repre- 
sentative of  the  national  authority  shaking  hands  with  the 
genius  of  American  safety — the  great  rail-splitter  reproach- 
ing the  railers  against  the  noble  army  and  its  gifted 
chieftain. 

When  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  nominated,  I  laughed  at 
the  convention;  when  he  was  elected,  I  trembled  for  the 
country ;  but  since  he  has  been  inaugurated,  I  have  learned 
to  love  and  honor  the  man  who  has  so  faithfully  wielded 
the  national  resources.  "When  the  South  struck  at  the 
President,  they  fired  at  a  man  in  the  stocks,  cooped  up  in 


WAR   MEETING   IN  UNION  SQUARE.  47 

judicial  decisions,  bound  down  by  legislative  restrictions, 
warned  away  from  all  philanthropic  -mischief  by  the 
wholesome  hostility  of  an  adverse  popular  vote.  They 
found  him  in  quiet,  helpless,  party  paralysis,  and  only  left 
him  an  aroused,  wounded,  angry  national  giant,  with  all 
the  resources  of  all  parties  at  his  command. 

The  South  sneered  at  our  poor,  under-fed,  over-worked 
soldiers,  who  fled  from  Bull  Kun;  but  now  the  world 
laughs  at  a  whole  community  who  ran  away  from  a 
shadow.  Our  soldiers  left  a  few  arms  and  knapsacks  on 
the  field,  while  they  threw  away  long  years  of  happiness 
and  prosperity.  Daily  are  we  taunted  with  their  superior- 
ity in  arms  and  birth.  They  claim  Washington,  as  if 
their  deeds  had  made  him.  Out  of  the  200,000  troops 
who  fought  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  the  South  did 
not  furnish  20,000.  But  for  the  North,  Washington 
would  have  gone  down  to  posterity  with  a  halter  around 
his  neck.  It  was  Northern  hands  that  moulded  his 
Virginia  clay  into  an  immortal  statue. 

Compared  with  our  solid  successes,  what  have  the  South 
achieved  in  this  war  ?  Two  or  three  land  checks  and  one 
steam  fright.  The  ghost  of  the  Merrimac  will  haunt  the 
nation  for  centuries.  By  diverting  the  base  of  operations 
from  the  James  River,  it  has  cost  us  $100,000,000.  That 
sum  would  have  built  us  300  Monitors,  which  would  have 
blockaded  all  intervention. 

The  inarch  of  events  now  means  the  march  of  armies. 
The  progress  of  our  institutions  depends  at  last  upon  the 
speed  of  our  bullets ;  when  they  rain  the  Union  is  safe, 
when  they  slacken  the  Union  reels.  War  is  a,  cruel  alter- 
native, but  not  more  so  than  a  peace  which  removes  from 
danger  without  relieving  us  of  disgrace,  disorder,  and 
disintegration.  We  want  not  lamentation  over  this  war, 
but  enlistments  in  the  war.  Let  us  shed  no  tears  but 


48      SPEECH   AT   THE  WAR   MEETING  IN  UNION   SQUARE. 

volunteers.     We  cannot  succeed  in  this  gigantic  war  until 
all  classes  are  worked  up  to  the  thrusting  point. 

There  must  be  a  fighting  man  from  every  family  and 
every  calling  ;  a  fighting  lawyer,  a  fighting  doctor,  a  fight- 
ing priest,  ay,  and  a  fighting  dandy.  Now  is  the  time  for 
white  kids  to  redeem  themselves.  Now  is  the  time  for  all 
that  army  of  fashionable  loungers  who  have  been  growling 
all  their  lives  for  lack  of  opportunity.  Now  is  the  time 
for  them  to  rise,  strike  and  be  immortal.  While  the  South 
have  sent  a  thousand  men  to  battle,  we  have  sent  a  hun- 
dred. While  they  have  mounted  science  to  lead  on  their 
armies  to  victory,  we  have  too  often  skipped  experience 
and  thrust  politics  on  horseback  to  save  the  country. 
Twenty-three  millions  of  people  are  tired  of  being  told 
that  they  are  outwitted  because  they  are  outnumbered. 
If  we  fall  now  we  will  be  the  oddest  ruin  on  record. 
Rome  was  four  hundred  years  dying  of  her  own  corrup- 
tions. We,  instead  of  being  enervated  by  luxury  or  dis- 
comfited by  invasion,  go  down  with  all  our  strength  and 
all  our  wealth,  and  all  our  wits  about  us.  Destroyed  by 
a  remark,  our  great  light  blown  out  by  the  passionate 
breath  of  partisan  oratory.  I,  for  one,  can  never  believe 
in  such  a  death.  The  ablest  sword  of  the  age  is  hanging 
by  our  side.  The  heaviest  purse  on  the  continent  is  in 
our  pocket ;  the  noblest  cause  for  which  man  can  draw  his 
brother's  blood,  calls  him  to  the  battle-field,  and  if  we 
wait  patiently  and  act  vigorously  the  greatest  victory  of 
modern  times  is  in  our  grasp — the  victory  of  the  Republic 
over  itself,  the  victory  of  democrat  virtues  over  aristocrat 
vices,  the  victory  of  law,  order,  and  Government  over  dis- 
union, distractipn,  conflagration  and  damnation. 


SPEECH 


ON  THE 


MILITARY  AND  FINANCIAL  POLICY   OF   THE 
NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT 

IN  THE 

LEGISLATURE  AT  ALBANY, 

JANUARY  23D,  1862. 


MK.  SPEAKER  : 

I  ought,  perhaps,  sir,  to  apologize  to  the  House  for 
inflicting  upon  it,  last  week,  a  resolution  which  might 
seem  inconsistent  with  the  gravity  and  wisdom  of  this 
body.  I  should  not,  sir,  have  noticed  the  gentleman's 
resolution  had  it  not  represented  the  spirit  of  a  class  of 
croakers  whose  feverish  officiousness  has  accomplished 
much  mischief  in  the  past  and  may  attempt  much  more 
in  the  future.  Towards  the  gentleman  from  New  York  I 
entertain,  sir,  a  due  regard.  His  position  and  worth 
entitle  him  to  that  regard.  But,  sir,  my  risibilities  were 
too  vigorously  invoked  to  restrain  me  from  demonstrating 
the  absurdity  of  his  resolution  by  identifying  him  person- 
ally with  its  execution.  I  came  to  Albany,  sir,  in  a  civil 
capacity.  Hoping  to  do  my  part  in  legislating  for  the 
best  interests  of  the  city  and  State  of  New  York,  I  brought 
with  me  only  a  few  plain  clothes,  without  cocked  hat  or 
regimentals.  Cros well's  Manuel  and  not  Hardee's  Tactics 
4 


50  SPEECH   IN   THE 

was  my  guide.  But,  sir,  that  gentleman's  resolution, 
urging  an  aggressive  movement  by  our  army,  supposes  a 
thorough  knowledge  on  our  part  of  the  propriety  and 
possibility  of  such  an  advance,  the  preparations,  capacity 
and  completeness  of  all  the  elements  composing  that  vast 
array  of  armed  destructiveness.  Certainly  it  implies,  too, 
that  all  this  formidable  force  is  quiet  only  because  we  are 
silent ;  that  it  is  waiting  for  our  resolution  to  give  itself 
resolution  to  advance.  Sir,  it  resolves  this  body  into  a 
generalissimo  of  the  army  of  the  Republic — it  constitutes 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  the  commander-in-chief  of  the 
national  crisis — it  substitutes  popular  impatience  for  the 
cautious  combinations  of  scientific  strategy.  In  theory  it 
deposes  the  President — deposes  the  Secretary  of  War — 
deposes  the  military  plan  of  the  campaign — deposes  the 
common  sense  of  the  country,  which  is  patiently  awaiting 
the  hour  when  the  soldier's  drill  shall  save  the  nation's  life. 
George  Washington,  sir,  was  seven  years  emancipating 
a  less  extensive  country,  and  with  not  half  the  foes  to  con- 
tend against.  It  took  the  combined  forces  of  France  and 
England  three  times  the  period  our  army  has  been  en- 
camped upon  the  Potomac  to  breach  successfully  a  single 
fortress  by  the  Black  Sea.  The  Richmond  Examiner,  I 
think,  gives  us  the  best  practical  solution  of  Gen.  McClel- 
lan's  inactivity.  That  partial  journal  declares  that  these 
Northern  mudsills  and  cowardly  assassins  are  by  science 
and  drill  becoming  rapidly  transformed  into  veteran 
troops.  What,  sir,  would  be  the  momentous  consequences 
of  a  move  of  that  immense  host  if  it  should  be  defeated. 
Sir,  the  beautiful  dream  of  our  unity  would  be  forever 
broken — the  glorious  volume  of  Constitutional  history 
ignominiously  closed;  Europe  clamorous  for  Southern 
recognition ;  England  imperative ;  France  jubilant ;  the 
South  a  nation  and  we  a  by-word,  laughed  at  by  our  own 


LEGISLATURE  AT   ALBANY.  51 

•« 

children  and  lorded  over  by  all  more  fortunate  contem- 
porary powers.  The  Congress  of  the  United  States  is 
sitting  within  sound  of  the  drum-beat  of  the  American 
army  and  with  its  General  in  conference.  Yet  that  Con- 
gress has  not  suggested  an  advance.  The  smoke  of  its 
thousand  camp-fires  intercepts  the  prospect  of  the  White 
House,  and  yet  its  inmate  urges  no  forward  movement. 
The  resources  of  the  country  have  been  taxed  to  their 
utmost  capacity  in  maintaining  the  gigantic  struggle,  yet  the 
people  are  quiet.  Though  the  banker  has  been  attacked 
oftener  than  the  traitor — though  the  sword  has  as  yet  only 
entered  our  financial  sides  and  richly  has  gushed  forth  the 
golden  blood — though  it  has  neither  reached  the  traitor's 
heart  nor  shivered  the  traitor's  cause,  yet  capital  is  silent, 
because  it  knows  how  silently  the  forces  for  its  redemption 
are  accumulating — how  calmly  and  completely  leader  and 
follower  are  learning  their  leaden  lesson,  so  that  victory 
may  follow  victory  as  regiment  succeeds  regiment  steadily 
and  brilliantly  to  the  final  consummation. 

I  thought,  sir,  the  "  On  to  Eichmond  "  cry  was  dead. 
I  thought  it  was  choked  in  the  death-rattle  of  its  own 
victims.  I  thought  it  died  with  the  shriekg  of  the  dying 
at  Manassas.  Who  shall  bring  back  its  dead?  Who 
shall  live  down  its  shame — the  pride  it  wounded,  the 
nations  it  shocked,  the  enemies  it  made,  the  money  it  lost  ? 
Every  home  in  America  rocked  under  it.  It  sped  the 
ball  that  shattered  the  heart  of  Cameron — it  forged  the 
iron  that  shackled  the  limbs  of  the  noble  Corcoran. 
Thousands  of  Northern  heroes  were  hurried  by  it  down  to 
Southern  dungeons,  welcoming  famine,  fevers,  suffocation 
and  despair,  rather  than  walk  forth  in  God's  sunshine 
under  the  sacrilegious  shelter  of  a  Southern  oath. 

Sir,  I  thought  the  "  On  to  Richmond  "  cry  was  dead — 
dead ! — buried  under  the  tramp  of  six  hundred  thousand 


LIBRARY 

r\f  ILLINi 


52  SPEECH   IN   THE 

drilling,  loyal  troops.  I  thought  it  was  dead,  sir,  until  1 
saw  it  rise  from  the  resurrection  table  of  the  9th  District. 
I  hope,  sir,  that  I  appreciate  that  gentleman's  patriotic 
anxiety  for  his  country's  success.  I  know  how  hard  it  is 
in  these  hard  times  to  keep  our  national  sympathies  from 
overflowing  the  limits  of  State  duties.  Our  bodies  are  in 
Albany,  but  our  hearts  are  at  Washington  with  a  suffering, 
bleeding,  but  I  hope  not  a  sinking  country.  For  God's 
sake  let  us  be  anxious,  but  not  officious.  We  cannot  save 
the  nation  by  losing  our  patience  or  forgetting  our  duties. 
The  civil  relations  of  the  Constitution  suppose  it  the  right 
and  interest  of  the  States  to  contribute  advice  as  well  as 
money  in  great  national  exigencies.  Mutual  co-operation 
and  confidence,  engendering  mutual  dependence  and 
sympathy,  tend  to  strengthen  the  bands  that  bind  the 
State  to  the  nation ;  but  the  genius  of  war  when 
in  action  looks  not  for  statesmanship  to  aim  its  iron 
blow. 

Its  authority  is  exclusive  and  peremptory  because  its 
knowledge  is  peculiar,  and  the  danger  it  is  to  master 
sudden,  fearful,  and  relentless.  Confronting  no  civil  argu- 
ment, it  can  profit  by  no  civil  experience.  If  European 
rulers  quell  revolt  more  decisively,  they  are  also  less 
innocent  of  the  causes  which  provoke  popular  commotion. 
We  may  have  committed  errors  in  attempting  to  suppress 
this  rebellion,  but  have  we  not  most  righteously  succeeded 
in  destroying  all  arguments  for  its  existence.  When  the 
history  of  this  huge  crime  is  written,  the  historian  will  find 
but  one  fault  with  the  United  States  Government ;  it  was 
too  angelic  for  the  fiendish  deviltry  of  the  hour.  There 
was  one  white  head  lately  in  the  White  House,  who  might 
have  planned  our  deliverance.  One  trembling  hand  now 
withering  in  village  obscurity  which  might  have  shut  off 
this  flow  of  fraternal  blood  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Gulf. 


LEGISLATURE   AT   ALBANY.  53 

V 

Stopped  it  with  his  pen  before  he  wrote  the  Lecompton  Mes- 
sage, stopped  it  with  his  sword  had  he  dropped  it  in  time 
upon  the  defenceless  fortifications.  Shall  you  and  I  throw 
a  napkin  over  the  dead  body  of  that  man's  reputation  ? 
And,  sir,  has  it  come  to  this  ?  In  the  19th  century,  in  the 
country  of  Washington,  in  the  age  of  universal  suffrage, 
with  all  the  elements  of  knowledge,  with  all  the  imple- 
ments for  its  wide-spread  diffusion,  with  a  home  to  love,  a 
church  to  warn  and  a  ballot  to  protect  us,  the  pride  and 
progress  of  America  has  dropped  into  a  cartridge-box.  A 
voting  and  debating  people  have  been  obliged  to  place  an 
eleven-inch  columbiad  in  the  chair  to  decide  their  differ- 
ences ? 

That  animal  appeal  to  which  barbarians  resort  in  the 
beginning,  our  enlightened  humanity  has  been  compelled 
to  undertake  at  last.  The  brain  of  the  nation  has  fled  to 
its  muscle  for  protection.  Heaven  seems  to  have  decreed 
that  our  greatest  blessings  should  be  born  of  slaughter  and 
contention — that  the  noblest  aims  which  sanctify  life 
should  demand  the  greatest  sacrifice  of  life.  No  great 
organic  political  principle,  since  the  overthrow  of  the 
Philistines,  has  ever  been  settled  without  blood — the  blood 
of  the  foreign  foe  in  achieving  the  national  independence ; 
the  blood  of  the  domestic  traitor  in  repressing  sectional 
ambition,  and  assuring  the  unity  and  concentration  of 
national  authority.  Hence  the  alacrity  with  which  good 
men  rush  to  righteous  conflict.  Hence  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  we  have  shivered  the  Peace  Party,  and  care- 
fully packed  away  its  broken  crockery  in  Forts  Warren 
and  Lafayette.  I  yield  to  no  man  in  sympathy  for  this 
war.  Over  my  Democracy  waves  no  white  feather. 
There  is  nothing  so  poisonous  as  peace  when  a  nation  is 
going  to  pieces.  There  is  nothing  so  healthy  as  blood 
when  healthy  things  are  to  be  bled  for.  There  is  no  visitoi 


54  SPEECH   IN   THE 

so  welcome  as  the  crimson  liquid  whose  vital  flow  shall 
stop  the  heart-beat  of  a  nation's  wrongs. 

On  that  dark  and  dreadful  current,  dethroned  and  dis- 
banded States  must  float  back  into  the  sale  anchorage  of 
American  unity.  Until  this  comes  talk  of  peace ! 

You  might  as  well  arm  a  regiment  with  rosebuds  to 
storm  a  battery,  as  attempt  to  drop  peace  into  the  rifled 
muzzle  of  this  iron  controversy.  Like  the  conjurer  who, 
by  the  firing  of  his  gun,  revealed  in  all  its  beauty  the 
diamond  ring  which  had  been  crushed  before  our  eyes,  so 
shall  the  firing  of  the  national  musketry  restore  the 
crumbling  jewels  of  our  nationality  in  all  its  priceless 
worth  and  purity.  While  we  feel  all  this,  hope  all  this, 
and  will  aid  all  this,  with  our  sympathies  and  resources, 
is  it  not  wise  in  us  to  leave  to  the  chosen  national  leaders 
the  wielding  of  the  national  difficulties  ?  The  local  in- 
terests of  the  State  are  important  enough  to  engross  all  our 
official  time  and  energies.  The  recommendations  of  the 
Governor's  Message  alone  would  conscientiously  occupy 
all  the  hundred  days.  There  are  the  harbor  defences  to 
be  completed.  Henceforth  advancing  America  marches 
armor-clad  to  her  destiny.  The  gentle  robe  in  which  she 
has  confidingly  enclosed  her  strength  is  too  fragile  and 
perilous  a  garment  to  guard  her  life  from  the  tragic  pos- 
sibilities of  universal  selfishness. 

Unsuspectingly  we  have  left  unlocked  our  garden  gates. 
Meaning  no  harm,  we  have  believed  in  none.  Invoking 
the  love  of  all  men,  we  have  invited  all  to  enter  and  par- 
take of  the  rich  fruits  of  this  Western  Paradise. 

Hereafter  we  confide  less,  and  arm  more.  Southern 
treason  has  torn  down  the  smile-embroidered  curtain  which 
concealed  the  gigantic  proportions  of  European  malignity. 

Yankee  republicanism  is  a  dangerous  success.  Yankee 
trade  and  Yankee  ingenuity  impertinent  competition.  No 


LEGISLATURE   AT   ALBANY.  55 

state  paper  can  argue  down  their  criminality,  unless  Parrot, 
Minnie  and  Dalgliren,  obtrude  their  gaping  mouths  into 
the  discussion.  Strew  these  vigorous  debaters,  in  prodigal 
profusion,  along  every  shore,  inlet,  promontory,  headland, 
or  highway  that  faces  the  approach  of  the  storm,  and  then 
a  child  may  sit  in  the  State  Department  and  direct  our 
foreign  policy,  with  a  scratch  of  its  pen.  A  defenceless 
coast  is  a  defenceless  and  paralyzing  point  in  the  wisest 
diplomacy.  How  morosely  European  statesmanship  con- 
templates us  because  we  will  not  announce  our  national 
death  ;  because  we  will  not  place  our  finger  upon  our  pulse 
and  say  it  has  stopped ;  because  we  will  not  permit  trans- 
atlantic cupidity  to  measure  our  corpse  and  divide  our 
assets.  Did  not  a  leading  British  Minister  startle  the 
world  when  he  so  intelligently  instructed  it,  by  declaring 
that  we  are  fighting  to  gratify  a  lust  for  empire  ?  Had 
this  "  Star  of  Empire  "  consented  to  have  crumbled  into 
submissive  asteroids,  how  the  virtuous  statesman  would 
have  recoiled  in  horror  at  these  dollar-drowned,  gain- 
loving,  self-abased  cravens.  If  the  old  Napoleon's  flotilla 
at  Boulogne  had  landed  the  Grand  Army  on  Portsmouth 
beach  would  the  lust  of  empire  have  marched  the  Cold- 
stream  guards  in  double  quick  from  London  ?  Are  St. 
James's  or  Hyde  Park  any  more  England's  household 
possessions  than  are  Florida  and  Louisiana  ours  by  right 
of  material  purchase,  by  intention  of  one  theoretical  and 
constitutional  interlacing  of  all  interests,  rights  and  terri- 
tories, into  that  grand  indivisible  assimilation  which  we 
feel  and  know  to  be  the  great  indestructible  National 
American  Unity  ?  Florida  with  all  her  swamps  and 
alligators  cannot  break  this  charmed  circle  of  States  with- 
out detracting  so  much  from  my  wealth  and  my  power  as 
the  citizen  of  a  guaranteed  and  unbroken  national  posses- 
sion. 


56  SPEECH   IN  THE 

New  York  with  all  her  elements  of  empire  has  no  option 
that  releases  her  from  the  irrevocable  contributions  of  her 
varied  power  to  the  common  Union.  Never  can  we  stand 
as  an  equal  before  all  nations  unless  we  firmly  insist  upon 
the  full  proportions  to  which  our  nation's  manhood  has 
expanded.  No  government  in  the  world  is  more  interested 
in  maintaining  the  ascendency  of  compact  national  author- 
ity over  aspiring  local  dependencies  than  that  of  the 
British  Empire.  Unity  is  the  source  of  all  its  political 
supremacy.  Unloose  these  bonds  and  the  charm  of  its 
invincibility  vanishes.  If  former  English  statesmen  could 
spend  $1,500,000,000  to  deter  the  theory  of  the  French 
Revolution  from  reacting  on  the  stability  of  the  English 
throne,  surely  our  position  should  invoke  the  sympathy 
of  all  who  are  not  merely  interested  in  thrones,  but  what 
is  far  more  important,  the  preservation  of  national  life 
everywhere.  When  the  dissolution  of  the  Irish  Union 
was  discussed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  George  Canning 
startled  the  whole  British  people  with  what  was  then 
thought  to  be  the  strongest  historical  argument  that  could 
be  opposed  to  it,  when  he  said,  "  What !  dissolve  the 
Union  ?  Restore  the  Heptarchy !  "  The  ghosts  of  seven 
weakened  and  helpless  kingdoms  were  artfully  stalked  in 
upon  the  debate  to  frighten  down  the  logic  of  the  opposition. 

I  am  not  one  of  these  who  predict  or  prefer  England's 
downfall.  If  there  must  be  among  nations,  as  there  often 
is  among  families  or  sects,  one  master  power  of  the  world, 
England's  supremacy  is  least  detrimental  to  civilization. 
Her  selfishness  is  grasping  but  her  intelligence  is  reforma- 
tory. She  educated  us  to  obey  and  then  defy  her.  There 
is  more  merit  in  confusing  her  strength  than  lording  over 
her  decline.  England  knows  that  the  loss  of  our  unity  is 
the  only  safeguard  for  the  perpetuation  of  her  supremacy. 
By  degrees  we  are  underselling  her  in  all  the  markets  of 


LEGISLATURE  AT  ALBANY.  57 

the  world.  Soon  we  shall  be  the  exclusive  manufacturers 
for  this  continent.  As  long  as  slavery  was  a  part  of  our 
united  strength  nothing  could  be  so  loathsome  to  British 
morality.  But  when  the  subjection  of  an  inferior  race 
became  the  means  of  destroying  the  rivalry  of  a  kindred 
people,  no  fabled  fairy  every  sprung  suddenly  upon  a 
desolate  moor  so  entrancing  to  the  British  gaze  as  the 
once  deformed  and  degraded  features  of  American  Slavery 
rises  out  of  the  dreary  contest.  Thus  we  find  England 
coaling  disunion  at  her  islands  and  shaking  hands  with  it 
in  her  palaces.  Yet  at  last  we  shall  explode  the  diseased 
sophistry  of  Southern  State  Rights  with  one  hand,  while 
we  brush  with  the  other  from  the  white  foam  of  the 
Atlantic  the  dark  monopoly  of  her  imperious  flag. 
Twenty-three  millions  of  free  compact  invincible  people 
have  decreed  it,  and  God  Almighty  will  ratify  it.  Denuded 
of  this  morbid  yearning  for  universal  possession,  Britannia's 
destiny  is  still  a  noble  one.  Let  her  civilize  India, 
emancipate  Ireland,  and  respect  America. 

In  connection  with  the  great  calamity  of  the  hour,  we 
are  to  consider  the  serious  question  of  increased  taxation. 
How  to  pay  the  expenses  of  national  salvation.  How  to 
give  up  our  money,  in  order  to  keep  up  our  Government. 
Freedom  from  heavy  taxation  has  been  a  crowning  exulta- 
tion of  American  institutions.  No  nation  ever  embraced  so 
many  facilities  for  acquiring  wealth,  with  so  little  cost  for 
its  protection.  It  is  no  wonder  that  we  have  clutched  iron 
blunderingly,  when  we  have  been  so  gorged  with  gold. 

If  the  war  continues  until  July  1863,  our  debt  will  be 
$1,200,000,000.  This  includes  all  accrued,  audited,  or 
outstanding  liabilities  of  every  character.  Now  it  is  as- 
sumed that  the  property  of  the  nation  is  worth  $16,000,- 
000,000,  and  that  we  have  in  our  immediate  possession 
$10,500,000,000.  So  we  part  with  less  than  one-tenth  of 


58  SPEECH   IN   THE 

what,  we  possess  and  a  little  more  than  one-sixteenth  of 
what  we  own  to  secure  all  that  remains.  Cannot  this 
thrifty  sum  ensure  the  continuance  of  national  existence  ? 
Why,  sir,  Lord  Macaulay  tells  us  that  the  Caliph  Omar 
conquered  all  Asia  on  barley  water — showered  the  wealth 
of  twenty  kingdoms  among  the  crown  jewels  of  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Prophet.  Allowing  the  greater  expense 
in  the  outlay  for  implements  of  modern  warfare,  and  the 
habit  of  extracting  from  our  barley  something  stronger 
than  water,  shall  we  not  bring  under  the  plain  bunting 
of  the  Union  a  more  magnificient  empire  than  ever  bent 
to  the  red  turban  of  the  Infidel  ?  Most  of  our  debt  abides 
with  us,  and  is  never  really  subtracted  from  the  sum  total 
of  our  possessions.  Seven  per  cent,  interest  upon  the 
whole  debt  in  '63  will  be  less  than  one  per  cent,  upon  all 
our  available  means  now.  Without  allowing  for  the 
natural  though  of  course  diminished  increase  in  the  coun- 
try's resources  then,  if  unforeseen  difficulties  should  run  up 
our  total  indebtedness  to  $2,000,000,000,  the  successful 
achievement  of  all  we  have  warred  for  and  been  taxed  for 
would  impart  a  prestige  and  inspiration  to  our  position,  the 
impetus  of  which  would  largely  increase  the  facilities  for 
liquidation.  Now  we  are  to  raise  by  tax  $150,000,000  for  the 
ensuing  year,  to  pay  interest  and  civil  and  war  expenses 
then  we  could  certainly  raise  $200,000,000,  paying  the  in- 
terest on  the  whole  debt,  the  current  expenses  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  giving  us  some  $30,000,000  or  $40,000,000 
annually  to  the  sinking  fund  for  the  gradual  extinction  of 
both  principal  and  interest.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
war  we  have  saved  $100,000,000  in  imports  and  gained 
$30,000,000  on  exports.  This  $100,000,000  of  imports,  em- 
ploying so  many  seamen  and  so  much  tonnage  to  freight 
them,  are  all  diverted,  more  or  less,  into  the  expense  and 
material  of  the  war.  It  is  fair  to  presume  that  20,000,000 


LEGISLATURE  AT   ALBANY.  59 

of  ^Northern  people  can  wean  five  dollars  a  head  on  an 
average  from  their  usual  expenses  to  the  service  of  the 
Government  annually.  The  amount  saved  through 
economy  and  timidity,  when  brought  out  by  tax  laws,  will 
almost  pay  the  whole  interest  on  the  accumulatory  debt. 
"We  buy  one  pair  less  of  patent-leather  boots,  the  difference 
loads  and  fires  a  64-pounder.  The  waste  of  war  after  all 
is  not  much  greater  than  the  extravagance  of  a  prosperous 
peace.  I  doubt  if  there  is  much  difference  between  the 
loss  of  money  for  balls  which  do  not  hit  the  enemy  and 
the  waste  of  purchased  articles  which  do  not  benefit  the 
individual.  Almost  all  luxuries  enervate,  and  destroy 
life.  One  32-pounder  costs  $9  to  fire  it,  this  is  not  a 
greater  total  loss  than  6  bottles  of  champagne  uselessly 
rioted  over.  The  saving  from  toys,  confectionery,  bouquets, 
extravagant  silks  and  laces,  is  simply  a  diversion  of  invest- 
ment to  more  iron,  wood,  coal  and  powder.  A  greater 
variety  of  investments,  of  course,  diffuse  more  wealth — but 
there  is  not  in  this  case  so  vast  a  disparity  that  we  cannot 
tolerate  it  for  a  long  time,  contemplating  the  blessings  at 
issue.  The  outlay  for  bread,  clothing,  and  healthful 
luxuries  and  pleasures,  in  moderation,  do  not  more  benefit 
peaceful  citizenship  than  the  sacred  expenditure  of  powder 
and  shot  to  blow  out  of  existence  the  disturbers  of  a  bene- 
ficent government,  benefit  society  everywhere.  All 
discussion  on  this  momentous  question  of  revenue  resolves 
itself  into  the  form,  and  not  the  fact  of  acquiring  it.  Un- 
expired  whiggery  revels  in  the  memory  of  the  old  inflation, 
and  is  delighted  that  the  pressing  necessities  of  the  govern- 
ment rush  to  the  legal  tender  of  an  unsupported  treasury 
note  issue. 

The  old  deposit-moving  Andrew  Jackson  Democracy 
were  alarmed  to  see  the  ancient  cautious,  pay-as-you-go 
policy,  that  so  long  ruled  the  country,  now  obliged  to  be 


60  SPEECH   IN   THE 

swept  away  by  the  awful  tempest  that  prostrates  all  peace- 
framed  precedents.  Necessity  puts  finance  as  well  as  men 
under  martial  law.  If  money  must  be  had,  the  issue  must 
come  first,  and  taxation  come  afterwards. 

As  blood  is  the  essential  element  of  all  animal  life,  so 
is  taxation  the  golden  life-stream  that  supplies  the  veins 
and  arteries  of  all  healthy  governmental  action.  But 
supply  from  taxation  is  slow,  and  exhaustion  from  war 
constant.  The  gap  between  them  then  must  be  bridged 
with  paper.  In  time  of  trouble  gold,  though  hard  and 
enduring,  is  the  first  to  fly  from  danger,  and  rush  timidly 
behind  bars  and  bolts,  down  into  old  stockings,  and  up  into 
sly  chimney  corners,  leaving  poor  weak  paper  to  equip 
armies,  fight  battles,  and  save  nations.  Yet  with  a  willing 
and  able  nation,  there  is  no  excuse  for  a  single  dollar  of 
paper  not  being  followed  up  by  a  corresponding  tax  to 
meet  it.  I  believe  that  the  pressure  of  a  healthy  public 
sentiment  will  be  too  great  for  our  federal  rulers  to  hazard 
their  good  fame,  by  neglecting  to  throw  immediate  and 
substantial  safeguards  around  an  emergency  that  is  so 
deeply  to  affect  the  interests  of  ourselves  and  our  posterity. 
TJax  now,  and  the  debt  of  our  children  will  not  be  wanton- 
ly increased  by  the  necessity  of  paying  interest  on  the 
principal  borrowed  to  pay  interest  on  the  original  principal. 
Tax  now,  and  you  check  the  temptation  inherent  in  all 
public  life  and  human  nature  to  squander  freely  what  is 
to  be  paid  back  indefinitely  and  to  be  watched  indifferent- 
ly. Come  on  then,  O  tax. . 

The  journey  of  an  Alpine  traveller,  though  often  ob- 
structed by  the  grand  and  dangerous  chasms,  is  less  fearful 
than  the  awful  void  of  an  empty  treasury  yawning  before 
a  nation  marching  to  its  own  deliverance. 

When  bankruptcy  takes  the  field,  famine  drops  the 
Bword  and  valor  yields  the  conflict.  That  pale  hand 


LEGISLATURE   AT   ALBANY.  61 

stretched  forth  from  the  ghastly  ranks,  tells  us  the  soldier 
is  there  to  strike,  to  bleed  and  die,  but  not  to  starve. 

Taxation  is  the  Nation's  consent,  spoken  in  gold.  Let 
it  flow  freely  from  the  long  accumulations  of  plethoric 
peace.  Leave  nothing  untaxed,  that  would  boast  its 
purchased  share  in  the  victory  it  shall  secure. 

Tax  the  boots  upon  our  feet,  that  we  may  walk  forth 
more  freely  in  this  free  land.  Tax  the  handkerchief  in 
our  pocket,  that  it  may  help  buy  off  as  well  as  wipe  off  the 
tears  that  gush  from  our  national  troubles.  Tax  the  lover's 
love  letter,  for  no  snowy  bosom  will  he  embrace  more 
soft  and  nourishing  than  the  gentle  government  that  en- 
folds him.  Tax  the  cradle  of  the  sleeping  infant,  that  the 
mother's  foot  may  rock  more  safely  the  generation  which 
is  to  be  blessed  by  its  fruits.  Tax  the  communion-cup, 
for  next  to  religion  there  is  nothing  so  sacred  to  the  heart 
of  humanity  as  the  Eepublicanism  we  would  snatch  from 
desolation. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  levy  we  will  be  called  upon  to  pay 
more  interesting  in  its  outlay  than  those  ordinances  of  the 
New  York  Common  Council  appropriating  the  first  mil- 
lion at  the  commencment  of  the  war.  That  money  paid 
for  the  first  drum-beat  that  called  the  loyal  North  to  arms. 
It  brought  out  the  jaunty  7th  and  the  sterling  71st  and 
the  heroic  69th  and  other  armed  heroes  equally  ready  and 
devoted. 

We  all  remember  the  anxiety  of  friends  for  their 
safety — while  they  were  ensuring  the  safety  of  the  national 
Capitol.  A  part  of  this  money  had  been  expended  for  the 
support  of  the  familes  of  those  volunteers.  The  Comp- 
troller will  soon  stop  payment  for  want  of  authority  from 
this  Legislature.  Many  of  these  poor  families  have  in- 
curred debt  for  necessary  expenses,  on  the  faith  of  these 
ordinances.  Some  are  shivering  without  fuel,  and  some 


62  SPEECH   IN   THE 

are  starving  for  want  of  bread,  while  their  husbands  and 
brothers  are  marching  on  every  battle-field,  from  Ship 
Island  to  Harper's  Ferry,  protecting  the  nation's  coal  and 
bread  wherever  it  can  be  found.  From  the  smoke  of  those 
battle-fields,  through  the  dense  forest  of  these  gleaming 
bayonets,  they  are  looking  into  this  Chamber  to  cheer 
their  dark  and  bloody  way,  by  invoking  our  aid  to  help 
their  helpless  friends. 

The  Committee  to  whom  was  referred  these  ordinances 
will  report  upon  them  unanimously  recommendatory,  as 
soon  as  the  authorized  parties  shall  lay  the  proper  vouchers 
and  certificates  before  them.  Besides  all  these  pressing 
duties,  we  have  banking  interests  to  regulate,  sanitary 
systems  to  organize,  city  charters  to  create  and  amend, 
and  a  thousand  objects  of  legislation  to  accomplish,  with 
only  a  few  days  to  effect  it,  and  we  swim  off  into  that  vast 
sea  of  national  politics,  where  looms  a  President,  Cabinet 
and  Congress  to  attend  to  these  sworn  duties. 

Look  at  the  lobby  that  we  have  to  watch — the  bribery 
and  corruption  to  punish  and  prevent.  Sadly  and  surely 
it  is  becoming  a  disheartening  question  with  high-toned 
citizenship  whether,  after  all,  it  is  worth  pouring  forth 
these  thousands  of  millions,  only  to  pass  from  heavy-armed 
treason  to  stealthy-stepping  robbery.  Everywhere  the 
cry  is,  and  the  conviction  is,  that  the  virtue  of  the  country 
is  receding  from  politics.  Little  good  men  are  turning 
their  backs  on  the  ballot-box,  and  great  good  men  are 
turning  their  backs  on  the  State  House,  and  with  their 
sense  of  duty  and  their  hopes  of  humanity,  retreating  into 
less  corrupting  forms  of  usefulness.  They  are  falling  back 
on  those  inner  intrenchments  of  liberty,  the  school,  the 
church,  the  periodical  press,  the  chair  of  learning,  the  farm 
and  the  home  where  politics  come  not,  save  to  relent  or 
expire,  and  where,  higher  than  station,  stronger  than 


LEGISLATURE   AT   ALBANY.  63 

patronage,  broods  the  calm,  conservative  spirit  of  moral 
power,  which  although  it  shuns  official  power,  and  warns 
official  power,  shall  yet  save  both  State  and  office  from 
threatened  absorption  by  sophist,  knave  or  demagogue. 
Should  not  such  reflections  invoke  a  sterner  sense  of  moral 
and  legislative  obligation,  and  admonish  us  that  our  best 
military  manoeuvre  is  to  fall  back  from  Washington  and 
McClellan  on  New  York  and  the  Knights  of  the  Shoddy 
and  the  Lobby.  Let  us  leave  the  question  of  the  poor 
war  prisoners  in  the  righteous  hands  of  President  Lincoln, 
while  we  attend  to  the  prisoners  that  are  to  be  taken  at 
home. 

Our  mission  is  to  strike  down  Northern  rogues,  while 
others  are  preparing  to  charge  Southern  traitors :  when 
both  are  extinguished,  let  us  disappoint  croaking  Europe 
by  beginning  anew  the  beautiful  effort  of  a  purer,  wiser 
and  more  harmonious  self-government. 


SPEECH 


ON   THE 


CELEBRATION    OF    THE    ANNIVERSARY 
OF  THE  GREAT  UPRISING  IN  APRIL, 

1861, 

DELIVEEED  AT  MADISON  SQtTAEE, 

APRIL  20TH,  1863. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS  : 

WOULD  to  God  I  could  call  you  all  fellow-soldiers ! 
"Would  that  my  oratory  was  bright  enough  to  braid  every 
plain  coat  here  into  the  livery  of  the  national  army. 
Would  that  the  breath  expended  on  so  many  speeches 
could  waft  all  these  mass  meetings  into  mass  regiments 
for  the  field,  where  duty  and  safety  demand  them. 

There  is  no  star  that  shoots  in  beauty  along  the  mid- 
night sky,  so  reverently  gazed  upon  as  the  passing  soldier, 
who  flits  through  the  darkness  of  his  country's  fortunes 
to  the  scene  of  her  glory  and  her  salvation.  Is  that 
soldier  rude  and  illiterate  ?  the  wisdom  of  Hamilton  and 
Jefferson  is  crying  to  him  for  help.  Is  he  poor  and  un- 
fortunate ?  the  fortunes  of  this  great  Republic  have  been 
swept  into  his  camp  for  safety. 

Will  sneers  and  copperhead  badges  redeem  us  ?  If 
this  war  is  wrong,  where  will  you  search  creation  for  a 
5 


6G  SPEECH   ON  ANNIVERSARY 

righteous  conflict?  Because  dainty  editors  dislike  or 
distrust  some  who  participate  in  these  "  Loyal  Leagues," 
shall  we  be  dumb  before  the  thousands  who  come  here 
with  beating  hearts  to  cheer  and  strengthen  their  love  of 
country  ?  I  do  not  say  that  this  meeting  will  capture 
Richmond  or  sink  the  Alabama,  but  surely  the  enthusiasm 
evinced  on  the  resolutions  announced,  and  the  strong 
names  associated  with  so  much  persistent  determination, 
must  have  its  weight  on  those  who  are  looking  for  divi- 
sions here,  as  the  last  hope  of  a  fading  heresy  whose  props 
are  Northern  blunders  and  Southern  shinplasters.  Do 
we  not  almost  hear  our  enemies  exclaim,  Ah,  those 
Yankees !  their  gold  is  at  150  in  the  war,  but  their  pulse 
is  at  200  for  the  war. 

The  balls  hurled  at  Fort  Sumter  two  years  ago,  did 
they  shiver  a  principle  or  only  a  parapet  ? 

The  first  trigger  pulled  on  this  nation  asked  America 
this  iron  question,  "  Will  ye  go  forward  with  Lincoln,  or 
backward  with  Beauregard  ?  Will  ye  cling  to  the  unity 
and  safety  of  an  invincible  empire,  or  will  ye  accept  the 
poisonous  sophistry  of  a  Southern  construction  of  consti- 
tutional duty,  and  dwindle  away  into  the  frivolous  frag- 
ments of  a  helpless,  diluted,  and  indefinitely  dissolving 
destiny  ? " 

Is  self-destruction  so  obviously  a  national  duty,  that 
England  frets  and  Eichmond  foams  because  we  will  not 
embrace  it,  because  with  a  scratch  of  the  pen,  we  will 
not  proclaim  that  the  pen  itself  has  failed  in  Govern- 
ment? 

This  right  of  suffrage,  so  grand,  so  safe,  so  simple,  so 
soothing  to  American  pride,  so  helpful  to  American  inter- 
ests, was  it  not  our  boast,  that  it  provided  a  remedy  for 
all  our  troubles ;  that  it  gave  thought  the  victory  over 
arms  for  evermore  ? 


OF   GREAT   UPRISING.  67 

"What  right,  then,  had  the  sixth  of  November  to  strike 
the  fourth  of  March  until  it  reeled,  and  the  Inaugural  al- 
most became  the  Requiem  of  the  Republic  ? 

Two  years  ago  you  answered  these  questions  with 
armies  as  well  as  arguments.  Then  capital  sprang  to  its 
feet  and  cried,  Here  is  my  gold,  take  it,  and  restore  the 
golden  circle  of  the  States.  Then,  patriotism  sprang  to 
its  arms,  exclaiming,  Here  is  my  life,  take  that,  too,  only 
preserve  the  principle  which  gives  to  all  our  lives  in- 
creased dignity  and  happiness. 

So  far  your  resolve  was  a  hope,  now  it  is  an  experience 
— the  experience  of  development  as  well  as  of  disappoint- 
ment; the  experience  of  errors  often  reformed,  and  as 
often  repeated ;  the  experience  of  a  Government  fighting 
for  liberty,  and  yet  not  always  careful  of  liberty ;  the 
experience  of  some  triumph,  some  defeats,  and  many 
tears.  We  have  lost  friends,  lost  treasure,  lost  battles ; 
but  when  the  smoke  of  the  contest  cleared  away,  the 
world  looked  in  vain  to  find  our  courage  and  our  perse- 
verance lying  among  the  killed  and  wounded.  No  raid, 
however  clever,  has  been  able  to  cut  us  off  from  those 
supplies.  No  capture  so  extensive  as  to  parole  our  de- 
termination to  succeed. 

Are  we  fighting  merely  to  recover  so  much  population, 
jurisdiction  and  territory  ?  Is  the  community  we  would 
reclaim  so  very  amiable  as  to  justify  this  awful  outlay  ? 
Has  not  the  sugar-cane  we  would  lose,  soured  more  than 
it  has  sweetened  our  tempers  ?  Does  not  the  cotton  that 
seceded  inflame  our  politics  quite  as  much  as  it  warms 
our  backs  ? 

We  insist  upon  the  old  Union  simply  because  the 
principle  upon  which  the  South  destroys  it,  makes  any 
other  union  impossible.  In  the  progress  of  the  war  we 
are  apt  to  forget  the  purposes  of  the  war.  We  go  before 


68  SPEECH   ON  ANNIVERSARY 

the  world  upon  the  issue  that  as  we  came  together  by 
convention,  we  can  only  part  by  convention ;  that  as  it 
required  more  than  a  minority  to  make  the  compact,  it 
takes  more  than  a  minority  to  break  the  compact. 

The  South  may  wrest  from  us  ten  thousand  leagues 
of  territory,  capture  $1,000,000,000  worth  of  property, 
and  destroy  a  million  of  men,  and  it  would  be  nothing  to 
plundering  us  of  the  principle,  that  the  majority  must 
rule.  It  is  the  only  prop  and  hope  of  free  government 
anywhere.  This  is  the  great  crime  of  the  crash. 

If  I  was  a  Democrat  before  the  war,  trying  to  prevent 
the  war,  how  should  I  insult  that  Democracy  now  by  em- 
barrassing a  contest  upon  which  depends  the  preservation 
of  democratic  institutions — where  our  success  is  all  that 
can  save  us  from  a  blotted  name,  a  broken  country,  and 
a  threatening  neighbor.  Who  says  that  the  real  Demo- 
cratic party  are  opposed  to  this  war  ?  Has  it  not  taken 
the  lead  in  all  our  wars — the  war  of  1812,  and  the  Mexi- 
can war  ?  Was  it  not  foremost  to  defend  the  position 
that  almost  led  to  war  on  the  Maine  boundary,  the  Ore- 
gon territory  and  French  indemnity  question  ?  Has  it 
not  won  half  its  popularity  by  its  bold  attitude  in  our 
foreign  relations?  and  will  ft  play  into  foreign  hands 
now  ?  will  it  be  found  raffling  for  a  goose  in  the  coal-hole 
while  the  house  is  falling  over  its  head?  Let  not  the 
hatred  of  Republicans  embarrass  the  safety  of  the  Repub- 
lic, or  the  loss  of  power  cause  us  to  jeopardise  the  very 
existence  of  power. 

If  it  be  true,  as  is  alleged,  that  the  Republicans  blun- 
dered in  bringing  on  the  war,  and  blundered  in  carrying 
on  the  war,  shall  the  Democrats  blunder  in  opposing  a  war 
that,  in  spite  of  all  Abolitionism,  is  to  restore  the  consti- 
tution and  the  Government  I  know  they  reverence  ?  Their 
best  blood  is  in  the  army,  and  their  best  brain  is  on  the 


OF   GREAT   UPRISING.  69 

stump  for  the  war.  Where  the  king  is,  there  is  the  court. 
And  where  the  best  Democrats  are,  there  is  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  With  all  its  faults,  that  party  has  been  the 
glory  of  the  past ;  with  all  its  responsibilities,  it  will  not 
be  the  shame  of  the  future. 

Where  does  the  peace  Democrat  see  the  least  prospect 
of  an  honorable  peace  without  successful  war  ? 

Does  he  see  it  in  the  hopeless  unanimity  of  Southern 
misapprehensions  and  malignity  ?  Does  he  see  it  by  the 
light  of  the  burning  merchantman  on  the  lonely  ocean  ? 
Does  he  see  it  in  the  sneers  of  the  Southern  leaders  at  the 
efforts  of  the  Northern  peace  party  ? 

If  they  want  peace,  let  them  drop  their  arms  and 
melt  back  their  angry  cannon  into  church  bells,  to  ring 
them  again  to  the  holy  worship  of  the  Union. 

If  the  South  have  any  grievances  against  the  Federal 
Government,  they  will  find  at  last,  after  all  their  prowess 
and  victories,  that  the  civil  was  more  effectual  than  the 
military  remedy. 

If  after  the  war  the  people  choose  to  call  a  convention, 
and  in  that  convention  decide,  and  the  people  constitu- 
tionally ratify  that  decision,  that  certain  States  may 
secede,  then  we  would  say,  Go  willingly,  because  you  go 
legally.  But  if  the  convention  and  the  people  decide 
that  they  shall  not  go,  then  not  all  their  forces,  aided  by 
the  ships  of  England  and  the  armies  of  Napoleon^  with 
the  ghost  of  his  uncle  at  the  head  of  them,  shall  wrest  one 
State  or  one  foot  of  earth  from  the  Union  of  our  fathers. 
Let  Earl  Russell  and  the  gracious  lords  of  neutrality 
remember  that  this  vast  war  and  all  its  immense  imple- 
ments of  destruction — in  spite  of  all  blockades,  all  Eman- 
cipation, Confiscation  and  Conscription  Acts — in  spite  of 
cavalry  and  infantry,  of  Monitors  and  fifteen-inch  guns — 
all  are  simply  to  give  a  harmless  piece  of  paper  a  chance 


70  SPEECH   ON   ANNIVERSARY 

to  perform  its  usual  election  office  of  eighty  years'  stand- 
ing, from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf.  Notwithstanding  all  the 
English  sneers  about  the  lust  for  empire,  and  the  despo- 
tism of  Fort  Lafayette  and  suspended  habeas  corpus — in 
spite  of  the  disease  of  camps  and  marches,  the  vast  stretch 
of  army  movements,  the  slaughter  at  Corinth  and  Fred- 
ericksburg — all  are  only  ghastly  highways  to  the  filling 
of  a  few  empty  chairs  in  the  National  Capitol  with  plain 
citizens,  and  to  entrust  them  with  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  sovereign  power. 

This  whole  war  is  simply  the  paying  of  two  thousand 
millions  for  Southern  mileage  to  the  capital.  I  admit  it 
is  a  high  rate  of  passage-money,  but  we  intend  to  pay  it, 
and  to  insist  upon  their  presence.  Are  we  not  execrable 
Unionists,  oh  !  plunderers  of  Ireland !  oh  !  torturers  of 
'India? 

We  have  come  here  to  strengthen  ourselves  at  the 
fountain  of  our  first  determination.  The  conflict  we 
resolved  on  two  years  ago  with  such  thoughtless  enthusi- 
asm must  now  be  carried  on  in  the  calm  of  thoughtful, 
inflexible  perseverance. 

At  first  the  war  was  a  holiday  sensation — novel,  blood- 
less and  exhilarating,  with  no  defeats,  no  tears,  and  few 
taxes  to  disenchant  us.  Now  this  anniversary  of  the  great 
uprising  is  shining  on  our  bloody  hands,  our  weeping 
homes,  our  wrangling  wrords,  our  growing  debts,  our 
blundering  deeds — shining  down  into  the  dark  bosoms  of 
a  patient,  suffering  and  bewildered  people,  and  touching 
us  all  with  a  deeper  conviction  of  how  much  we  have 
gained  in  possessing  "Washington,  how  much  we  have  lost 
in  forgetting  him  !  The  spell  of  empire  broken,  the  sense 
of  safety  shaken,  the  pride  of  power  wounded,  the  hopes 
of  progress  checked,  the  desolation  of  America  the  only 
birthday  gift  to  the  savior  of  America  on  the  anniversary 


OF   GREAT   UPRISING.  71 

of  his  coming  !  It  is  well  that  the  spirit  of  such  a  memory 
should  waylay  our  descending  fortunes,  and  lift  us,  if  but 
for  a  moment,  above  the  snappish  policies,  the  wild  phi- 
lanthropy, the  tempting  contracts  and  the  sinking  char- 
acter of  our  country,  into  kindred  elevation  and  instruc- 
tive communion  with  him  who  loved  all  sections,  saved 
all  sections,  and  warned  all  sections,  how  much  we  must 
do  and  undo,  how  much  we  must  bear  and  forbear,  if  we 
would  remain  a  peaceful,  helpful,  united  commonwealth. 
A  business  people  have  been  nearly  destroyed  by  not 
minding  their  own  business;  a  practical  people  almost 
engulfed  in  a  theory — the  theory  at  the  North  that  it  was 
necessary  to  make  laws  in  order  to  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
Territories — the  theory  of  the  South  that  it  was  necessary 
to  break  laws  in  order  to  carry  slavery  into  the  Terri- 
tories. From  'the  heights  of  our  own  united  follies  these 
dark  blunders  are  now  shelling  each  other. 

Yet  with  all  our  faults  of  peace  in  the  past,  and  all 
our  faults  of  war  in  the  present,  war  is  the  great  virtue 
of  the  hour — the  costly,  ghastly,  battle-stained  business 
of  American  duty,  from  whose  ferocious  investment  in 
bones  and  powder  shall  come  forth  the  return  profits  of 
State  fidelity,  national  security  and  general  prosperity. 

A  people  who  have  stretched  over  a  vast  continent, 
and  settled  the  borders  of  two  oceans,  are  not  to  be 
stopped  by  a  wooden  stake  in  Charleston  channel.  If 
nine  Monitors  are  insufficient  to  reduce  that  stronghold, 
nine  hundred  Monitors  must.  If  we  cannot  blow  them 
out,  smoke  them  out,  nor  starve  them  out,  we  must  wear 
them  out  by  the  prompt  and  ceaseless  pressure  of  the 
national  retribution.  Washington  was  seven  years  found- 
ing a  nation,  and  can  we  expect  Abraham  Lincoln  to  save 
it  in  less  than  half  that  time  ?  The  British  people  bore 
the  blood  and  taxes  of  twenty  years  of  war  to  assert  the 


72  SPEECH   ON  ANNIVERSARY 

right  to  meddle  with  their  neighbors  on  the  continent, 
and  shall  we  be  disheartened  by  a  two  years'  conflict  to 
maintain  our  own  existence?  We  are  not  fighting  the 
distant  Englishman,  nor  the  degenerated  Mexican,  nor 
the  poor,  fading  Indian,  but  a  daring,  dreadful  and  defiant 
Anglo-Saxon  equal,  with  our  knowledge  in  his  head,  our 
blood  in  his  veins,  our  glory  in  his  history,  our  God  re- 
ceiving his  oath,  and  our  "West  Point  pointing  his  gun. 

This  is  a  war  of  resources  more  than  of  genius — of  so 
much  material  hurled  against  so  much  other  material; 
and  he  who  hurls  most  will  live  longest. 

The  great  truth  that  underlies  the  contest  must  be 
some  compensation  for  the  lack  of  great  victories  and  great 
commanders.  As  all  of  us  helped  to  build  up  the  Repub- 
lic, so  is  it  to  be  saved  by  the  strong  arm,  long  purse,  and 
clear  heads  of  the  united  masses.  Thus  far  our  greatest 
general  has  been  our  general  greatness.  If  pride  is  the 
most  sensitive  of  human  passions,  the  wise  man's  pride  of 
institutions,  and  the  strong  man's  pride  of  muscle,  are 
deeply  involved  in  this  contest.  Will  the  northern  youth, 
who  glories  in  his  manly  strength  and  pluck,  let  history 
record  that  he  was  overcome  by  foemen  not  half  so  nu- 
merous? Will  the  student,  or  the  statesman,  whose  study 
of  other  nations  only  makes  them  turn  more  fondly  to 
their  own  self-adjusting  system — will  they  see  their  beau- 
tiful ideal  dissolve  like  a  dream,  and  not  stretch  forth  a 
hand  to  save  it  ?  Will  the  merchant,  who  has  kept  his 
faith  in  the  great  contract,  consent  to  lose  his  share  in  a 
bargain  that  acknowledges  him  joint  owner  of  a  thousand 
leagues  of  territory  ?  Will  the  northern  laborer,  whose 
toil  and  sweat  are  at  this  moment  paying  for  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Florida,  cry  out  for  a  peace  that 
robs  him  both  of  his  money  and  his  country  ?  Eight 
inches  of  every  foot  of  land  in  those  States  were  paid  for 


OF  GREAT   UPRISING.  73 

by  a  Yankee  invasion  of  brains  and  dollars.  And  when 
we  march  to  the  protection  of  our  own  possessions,  and 
to  enforce  obedience  to  our  own  existing  laws  in  our  own 
country,  and  to  the  fulfillment  of  our  own  oath  and  life- 
long habit  of  jurisdiction  and  authority,  that  is  the  com- 
ing of  the  invader.  And  for  what  purpose  do  we  march  ? 
To  subjugate.  Subjugate  who  and  what?  Subjugate 
our  southern  brethren  to  be  our  equals  in  everything. 
Subjugate  the  meanest  of  their  people,  by  recognizing  his 
right  to  the  chance  of  being  our  President  and  ruling  over 
us,  our  General  and  commanding  us,  our  Judge  and  con- 
demning us,  our  legislator,  and  help  shape  our  vast  inter- 
ests and  resources.  This  is  the  yoke  the  South  are  said 
to  be  living  on  half  rations  to  avoid.  This  is  the  subjuga- 
tion the  masses  of  Europe  would  wade  through  seas  of 
blood  to  enjoy. 

Flora  McFlimsey  with  a  house  full  of  clothes  had 
"  nothing  to  wear."  And  the  spoiled  South,  with  all  the 
richest  privileges  of  the  Constitution  strewn  in  profusion 
around  her,  drops  in  scorn  the  starry  mantle  of  her  free- 
dom and  her  glory,  and  waits  with  haughty  impatience 
for  Paris  and  London  to  wrap  around  her  the  later  and 
flimsier  robes  of  intervention. 

That  millenium  of  southern  hopes  has  its  realizations 
as  often  adjourned  as  the  Millerites'  predictions  of  the 
destruction  of  the  earth.  When  such  a  day  of  peril  comes, 
it  will  be  but  a  new  form  of  American  investment,  in  con- 
flict, suffering,  and  final  success.  If  England  will  only 
wait  till  we  complete  the  implements  for  her  reception, 
then  Seward  and  Palmerston  may  roll  up  their  polished 
platitudes,  and  Ericsson,  Dahlgren,  and  Armstrong  un- 
limber  the  crashing  diplomacy  that  is  to  fight  out  the 
great  question  of  who  shall  be  the  master  nation. 

In  yonder  window  sits  the  spirit  of  our  past  victories. 


74  SPEECH   ON  THE  GKEAT   UPRISING. 

His  form  is  crumbling,  his  sun  is  setting,  his  light  will 
lead  our  armies  to  no  more  triumphs.  As  he  gave  his 
youth  to  England's  punishment,  and  cradled  his  renown 
on  England's  discomfiture,  it  may  be  that  his  last  days 
shall  yet  behold  the  grasping  selfishness  of  this  twice-chas- 
tised power  again  humbled  before  a  reconciled,  indignant, 
and  irresistible  America. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CRISIS, 

DELIVERED    AT   THE    COOPER   INSTITUTE   BEFORE   THE  WAR    DEMOCRACY, 

NOVEMBER  1ST,  1864. 


[MAJ.-GEI}EEAL  SICKLES  having  concluded  his  speech,  after  waiting 
for  the  subsidence  of  the  tumultuous  enthusiasm  with  which  the 
patriotic  and  eloquent  victim  of  the  war  was  greeted,] 

Mr.  CODDINGTON  rose  and  addressed  the  assembly. 
FELLOW  CITIZENS  : 

I  FEEL  the  disadvantage  of  succeeding  a  hero.  I  bring 
with  me  no  deeds  and  no  wounds  to  sanctify  these  verbal 
contributions  to  the  exigency.  "We  lose  our  hearts  with 
those  who  lose  their  limbs  for  a  cause  that  cannot  be  lost1 

In  this  ghastly  crisis  of  our  broken  and  bereaved 
America,  a  patient,  suffering,  and  bewildered  people  are 
anxiously  asking  each  other,  in  whose  ballot  is  wrapped 
the  honor  and  safety  of  the  nation,  which  ticket  will  admit 
us  to  the  theatre  of  a  restored  and  renovated  common- 
wealth ?  Does  the  angel  of  redemption  beckon  to  us  from 
the  platform  at  Chicago  or  Baltimore  ?  almost  the  exact 
distance  between  self-destruction  and  self-government. 


"76  ADDKESS   UJN 

While  the  tempest  is  sweeping  away  old  party  obliga- 
tions and  raining  down  upon  us  new  duties,  shall  we,  as 
Democrats,  drop  helplessly  into  the  flood,  tied  to  the  dead 
body*  of  an  organization  whose  anti-democratic  conduct 
and  anti-American  spirit,  would  only  entail  upon  us  ridi- 
cule, degradation,  and  suicide?  Had  the  Democratic 
Party  braced  themselves  up  to  the  heroic  height  of  the 
difficulty ;  had  they  grafted  the  pluck  of  the  ballot  on  the 
bravery  of  the  bayonet,  by  insisting,  without  an  "  if "  or 
a  "  but,"  upon  the  inviolability  of  the  national  unity  ;  had 
they  joined  issue  with  the  administration  upon  mere  ques- 
'tions  of  administration,  going  before  the  country  with 
different  candidates,  to  vindicate  the  same  national  prin- 
ciples, asking  a  verdict  of  the  people  upon  the  propriety 
or  impropriety  of  test  oaths,  upon  the  question  of  a  sounder 
financial  policy  for  the  war,  upon  a  more  careful  suspension 
of  the  habeas  corpus,  upon  the  best  mode  of  reconstructing 
States  and  ameliorating  acts  of  confiscation,  so  that  the 
South  might  not  pass  from  a  slaughter-house  to  an  alms- 
house,  so  that  we  might  bind  up  the  broken  links  of  our 
common  brotherhood  with  discrimination  as  well  as  deter- 
mination ;  had  they  planted  one  foot  on  the  crimes  of  the 
South  and  the  other  upon  the  faults  of  the  administration, 
and  said :  "  Here  we  stand,  this  is  our  platform,  we  will 
punish  the  one  and  avoid  the  other ; "  such  an  opposition 
would  have  been  seasonable,  healthful,  and  perhaps  suc- 
cessful. Party  men  and  no  party  men,  discontented 
Republicans  and  contented  Democrats,  all  could  have 
joined  heartily,  because  safely,  in  so  legitimate  an  an- 
tagonism. Do  not  the  virtues  of  the  war  and  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  war  admonish  us  to  remember  that  while  both 
parties  are  falling  and  dying  upon  the  same  bloody  field, 
struck  down  by  the  same  dark  hand,  for  the  same  bright 
cause,  both  parties  should  adjourn  their  less  urgent  differ- 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  77 

ences  and  unite  upon  the  one  fearful  overshadowing  neces- 
sity, so  that  citizen  and  soldier,  partisan  and  patriot, 
Republican  and  Democrat,  hand  in  hand,  thoughtfully  as 
well  as  pugnaciously,  we  may  snatch  from  this  gory 
hurricane  of  righteous  conflict  the  sweet  sugar-cane  of 
perpetual  peace  ? 

We  sympathize,  naturally,  with  Abraham  Lincoln. 
We  appreciate  the  awful  magnitude  of  his  trials  and 
temptations,  his  danger  and  his  duties.  We  thank  God 
that  a  Scotch  cap  saved  the  American  Cap  of  Liberty 
from  sudden  and  sacrilegious  spoliation.  We  know  how 
eagerly  a  jealous  opposition  have  been  watching  him  to 
make  capital  out  of  the  blunders  and  losses  of  this  war,  in 
order  to  obtain  that  power  which  their  own  blunders  lost. 
An  executive  without  experience,  without  the  larger  range 
of  statesmanship  to  grasp  so  comprehensive  a  calamity,  is 
suddenly  called  upon  to  thrust  out  his  village  hands  to 
catch  a  falling  empire. 

I  defy  any  man,  even  Napoleon  himself,  to  pass 
instantaneously  from  an  Illinois  lawyer  to  a  Washington 
Commander-in-Chief  without  committing  grave  errors. 
Has  his  policy  prolonged  the  war  ?  Which  prolongs  war 
most,  the  McClellan  theory  that  returns  to  the  enemy 
the  live  ammunition  of  a  working  negro,  or  the  Lincoln 
programme  that  keeps  the  African  and  hurls  back  only 
the  avenging  sweep  of  musket  and  mortar  ?  Did  he  lay 
his  hand  on  the  military  elements?  Just  in  time  for 
Presidential  common  sense  to  save  Chickahominy  strategy 
from  losing  Washington.  Who  doubts  now  if  McDowell 
had  reported  for  duty  on  the  Peninsula,  Stonewall  Jackson 
would  not  have  thought  it  his  duty  to  file  up  Pennsylvania 
avenue  ?  Has  the  President  sanctioned  arbitrary  arrests  ? 
So  did  Washington  and  Jackson ;  so  must  all  rulers  who 
would  save  a  State  in  danger.  Where  one  innocent  person 


78  ADDRESS   ON   THL 

has  suffered,  a  hundred  guilty  ones  have  escaped.  Does 
he  favor  acts  of  confiscation  ?  The  South  have  confiscated 
every  Northern  thing,  from  a  pin  to  a  principle.  Has  he 
uttered  the  fearful  word  "  Emancipation  ? "  It  was  a 
trumpet  in  the  storm  calling  all  hands  on  deck  to  save  the 
ship.  When  the  storm  subsides  the  pen  will  shape  into 
consistent  proportions  the  security  and  humanity  of  the 
republic.  There  must  always  be  a  despotism  in  the  Con- 
stitution to  meet  the  dangers  of  the  Constitution.  If  the 
beautiful  charter  cannot  defend  itself,  it  is  merely  a  pass- 
ing remark,  instead  of  a  reliable  instrument.  Accustomed 
only  to  the  practice  of  its  peaceful  provisions,  we  forget 
that  it  is  not  merely  a  temple  in  which  to  worship  and 
administer,  but  an  arsenal  to  load  and  fire.  The  war 
power  of  the  Constitution — the  right  to  suspend  habeas 
corpus,  to  raise  and  support  armies — is  an  awful  recogni- 
tion of  the  necessity  for  despotism  in  danger ;  not  a  wanton 
and  reckless  employment  of  force,  but  an  effective  and 
peremptory  use  of  power  to  meet  sudden  and  perilous 
emergencies.  I  do  not  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  always 
wielded  this  power  judiciously.  Yet,  if  there  is  but  one 
person  in  the  crowd  who  will  save  my  life  from  an  assassin, 
I  will  not  stay  his  arm  to  criticise  his  character.  If  we 
cannot  endorse  his  errors  we  may  at  least  adjourn  their 
accountability.  We  looked  around  in  vain  at  this  election 
for  any  one  else  to  strike  such  blows  for  the  Union  as 
Abraham  Lincoln.  The  extremest  war  feeling  is  in  power 
at  the  South,  and  the  extremest  war  feeling  must  be  in 
power  at  the  North,  or  there  is  no  equality  in  the  energy 
that  wields  our  respective  resources.  Moderation  and 
compromise  are  strength  in  peace ;  they  are  weakness  in 
war.  The  South  mean  every  means  of  destruction ;  and 
if  we  mean  less  we  will  gain  less  than  we  are  fighting  for. 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  a  long  man,  but  he  is  the  shortest  cut  to 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  79 

the  enemy.  If  we  mean  war  we  must  vote  for  him.  We 
opposed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1860,  because  he  was  only 
the  available  candidate  of  what  seemed  then  a  still  more 
unavailable  party ;  but  the  flood  of  insurrection  in  1864 
has  swept  him  upon  the  Ararat  of  the  argument,  and  the 
Chicago  party  have  made  his  election  the  only  test  of  true 
citizenship.  You  cannot  inflict  upon  the  Southern  crime 
so  severe  a  Presidential  punishment  as  the  re-election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Whatever  that  guilty  community 
have  suffered,  of  desolation  or  slaughter,  of  weeping  homes 
or  broken  hearts,  have  fallen  upon  them  in  streams  of 
national  retribution,  poured  from  the  chartered  hand  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  AVhen  you  re-elect  him  you  re-elect  a 
restless  chastening  rod — you  re-elect  the  unbroken  and 
uncompromising  march  of  the  sovereign  supremacy. 

Few  men  could  have  carried  this  Government  through 
such  a  conjuncture  without  committing  errors  enough  to 
have  insured  the  success  of  any  opposition,  candidly  and 
patriotically  marshalled.  Unfortunately  for  us,  unwisely 
for  them,  the  Democratic  leaders  have  so  shaped  the 
canvass  that  we  dare  not  change  our  rulers  for  fear  of 
changing  our  institutions.  Vitiated  by  long  habits  of 
political  intrigue,  they  judged  the  popular  intelligence 
from  their  own  degenerate  stand-point.  Because  the 
people  asked  for  reform,  they  thought  they  would  bear 
revolution  ;  because  some  were  willing  to  accept  an  im- 
provement on  Abraham  Lincoln,  they  imagined  it  a  good 
time  to  administer  a  platform  dissolved  in  this  weak  decoc- 
tion of  Yallandigham,  Jeff.  Davis,  and  Benedict  Arnold. 
The  American  people  are  a  people  of  sentiment.  They 
are  gazing  down  into  the  profoundest  depths  of  this  ques- 
tion. As  surely  as  the  springs  of  the  earth  are  gushing 
pure  and  sweet  beneath  the  blood  of  battle,  just  so  sure, 
under  all  the  horrors  of  war,  do  we  behold  the.  refreshing 


80  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

streams  of  future  order,  stability,  and  peace.  The  Amer- 
ican people  are  also  a  business  people.  They  have  esti- 
mated the  profits  and  losses  of  this  war  ;  they  have  dropped 
in  one  scale  the  tears,  the  graves,  the  debts,  the  taxes,  the 
crippled  limbs,  the  ruined  homes,  the  demoralized  habits, 
and  the  depreciated  constitutions ;  and  in  the  other  scale 
they  have  placed  the  unity,  the  progress,  and  the  prosperity 
of  America  ;  and  they  know  how  such  profits  outweigh  all 
its  losses.  They  see  rising  from  the  crimson  mist  a  firmer, 
securer  nationality,  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  the  sophist 
or  the  conspirator,  just  as  restricted,  but  more  respected 
of  all  States  and  nations.  They  see,  too,  the  States — 
always  inviolate  within  their  just  sphere — no  longer,  with 
an  arrogant  intrusiveness,  aspiring  to  unsettle  the  grander 
guardianship  of  the  nation.  If  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the 
tyrant  and  imbecile  they  call  him,  the  Democratic  Party 
had  a  great  card  in  their  hands,  and  the  people  will  hold 
them  responsible  for  trifling  with  the  crisis  and  throwing 
away  the  game. 

If  the  President  is  weak,  better  a  weak  man  with  a 
strong  cause  than  an  indifferent  man  with  no  cause  at  all. 
Professing  to  be  horrified  at  the  usurpations  of  the 
administration,  the  Chicago  party  have  left  the  people  no 
alternative  but  to  hold  on  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  or  give  up  the 
country.  What  kind  of  a  country  is  it  which  elects  the 
Chicago  ticket?  A  majority  of  the  people  will  then  have 
decided  that  the  principle  of  obedience  to  the  will  of  the 
majority  can  no  longer  be  maintained;  that  it  failed  by 
peace  in  1860 ;  that  it  has  failed  by  war  in  1864.  Elect 
that  ticket,  and  you  elect  a  laugh  at  our  own  arrogance, 
imbecility  and  cowardice ;  you  elect  an  acknowledgment 
that  eight  millions  of  people,  armed  with  an  impracticable 
sophistry  are  too  much  for  twenty  millions,  backed  by  the 
eternal  truths  of  republican  faith  and  national  sovereignty. 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  81 

Oh  !  but  McClellan's  letter  is  sound  on  the  war.  "When 
was  the  Democratic  machine  ever  stopped  by  a  letter  ? 
Franklin  Pierce's  inaugural  declared  that  the  slavery 
question  should  never  be  revived  during  his  administration, 
and  in  one  year  the  land  was  wild  with  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  James  Buchanan  made  a  similar 
declaration,  and  the  blast  from  Kansas  almost  blew  out 
the  light  of  the  republic. 

"  Union,"  writes  McClellan,  "  is  the  one  condition  of 
peace,"  ah !  but  what  Union  ?  The  Union  that  appeases 
Southern  hostilities  by  surrendering  to  Southern  dogmas 
about  States  doing  as  they  like,  or  the '  Union  that  insists 
lirmly  on  a  firmer  adherence  to  national  obligations  ?  He 
dare  not  tell  us  which  Union  he  means,  and  we  dare  not 
trust  him  without  knowing. 

Besides,  a  scratch  of  the  pen  does  not  prove  a  man. 
A  campaign  letter  is  not  a  candidate's  character.  If  you 
want  to  know  McClellan,  you  must  find  out  his  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling.  Who  are  his  friends  ?  What  are  his 
associations  and  surroundings  ?  They  make  the  man,  not 
electioneering  words.  The  very  virtues  of  the  individual 
would  be  the  vices  of  the  administration.  The  men  who 
made  McClellan  are  heart  and  soul  with  the  South.  If  he 
is  grateful,  he  will  be  true  to  them,  and  so,  false  to  the 
country.  Elect  the  Chicago  ticket,  and  the  Democratic 
Party  will  tell  you  that  the  people  have  decided  in  favor 
of  negotiation.  You  know,  and  I  know — and  all  the 
world  knows — that  success  in  negotiation  depends  on  suc- 
cess in  war.  The  South  will  say  to  your  commissioners, 
"  We  went  to  war  for  our  independence — you  went  to  war 
to  prevent  it.  You  have  been  throwing  shot  and  shell 
upon  us  for  three  years  and  a  half  without  our  crying 
enough.  If  your  war  is  a  failure  ours  is  a  success,  and  we 
demand  the  fruits  of  it — the  acknowledgment  of  our  inde- 
6 


82  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

pendence."  What  other  guaranties  could  you  give  them  ? 
They  have  had  everything  but  this  acknowledgment? 
The  Republican  Congress  of  1861  unanimously  guaranteed 
slavery  in  the  States,  and  refused  to  disturb  it  in  organizing 
new  Territories.  If  the  South  wanted  more  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  in  God's  name,  what  will  they 
demand  when  you  have  pronounced  that  war  a  failure? 

McClellan  could  give  them  no  more  than  Lincoln 
offered  them  through  the  first  eighteen  months  of  the  con- 
flict. He  gave  them  back  their  negroes;  he  guaranteed 
them  every  right  under  the  Constitution,  and  what  was 
the  answer?  More  armies  to  invade  us,  more  pirates  to 
burn  our  helpless  merchantmen,  more  importunities  for 
foreign  aid  to  co-operate  against  us,  and  if  these  fail,  the 
last  ditch  more  welcome  than  the  temple  of  Washington. 
General  McClellan  in  repeating  Mr.  Lincoln's  past  is  only 
walking  through  the  canvass  in  that  gentleman's  old  boots. 
If  elected,  backing  his  car  on  the  worn-out  rails  of  1861 
and  1862,  to  end  where  the  colonies  began,  amid  the  con- 
fusion and  anarchy  of  aboriginal  conflicts. 

John  Yan  Buren,  in  a  speech  at  Hudson,  told  the 
people  that  Mr.  Lincoln  with  his  emancipation  policy,  had 
perverted  the  objects  of  the  war.  More  than  a  year  ago, 
on  Madison  Square,  he  declared  slavery  deserved  its  doom. 
Before  the  war  that  prophetic  politician  informed  the 
North  if  secession  took  place  it  would  be  only  a  holiday 
task  for  us  to  go  South  and  reannexthem  without  slavery. 
Where  are  we  to  place  a  ticket  with  such  summersault  sup- 
porters ?  Here  is  one  of  the  original  founders  of  the  later 
anti-slavery  party  going  about  the  country  denouncing  his 
own  offspring.  .  Are  not  eighteen  months  long  enough  to 
play  with  war,  fritter  away  our  strength  and  jeopardise 
our  existence  ?  Depend  upon  it,  a  people  who  could  fire 
on  a  President  struck  with  the  paralysis  of  judicial  and 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  83 

congressional  restrictions,  drop  two  houses  of  Congress, 
throw  away  a  supreme  judicial  bench,  turn  their  backs 
upon  a  popular  vote  ready  to  sweep  them  again  into 
power — a  people  who  have  emptied  their  hands  of  all  these 
blessings  that  they  might  tear  up  the  foundations  of 
American  prosperity,  and  float  their  ruins  in  the  heart's 
blood  of  the  North — such  a  people  are  not  to  be  brought 
back  by  an  armistice,  but  on  a  stretcher. 

Never  but  once  have  the  citizens  of  the  North  voted 
directly  upon  the  slavery  question,  and  then  they  gave  an 
overwhelming  majority  for  Southern  rights.  In  the  contest 
of  1852,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  were  almost  the  only  questions  before  the  people ; 
yet  every  Northern  State,  but  two,  voted  solid  for  the 
South.  That  was  the  real  test  of  Northern  feeling  for 
Southern  slavery  under  the  Constitution.  In  1856  the 
large  vote  of  Fremont  was  neither  for  the  woolly  horse 
nor  for  the  woolly  head,  but  the  recoil  of  a  business  people, 
from  the  breach  of  contract  in  the  repeal  of  the  Com- 
promise of  1820.  The  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  judi- 
cial verdict  against  the  corruption  of  politicans  and  the 
wiles  of  conspirators  under  the  Buchanan  administration. 
The  anti-slavery  vote  was  not  the  increase  of  anti-slavery 
feeling ;  but  the  people  driven  into  the  anti-slavery  party, 
as  the  only  organized  means  of  breaking  down  depraved 
statesmanship,  corrupted  by  the  slave  .power.  France  has 
been  called  a  monarchy,  modified  by  songs ;  Russia  a  des- 
potism, tempered  with  assassination;  and  is  not  the 
American  republic  a  democracy,  checked,  not  Chicagoed, 
by  watchful  minorities?  The  great  distinction  between 
despotism  and  democracy  is,  that  in  the  first,  the  minority 
is  dominant  and  stationary ;  in  the  last  it  is  patient,  sub- 
ordinate and  fluctuating.  The  minority  of  to-day,  fresh 
from  communion  with  the  people,  may  be  the  majority  of 


84  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

to-morrow,  administering  their  sympathies  in  the  govern- 
ment; and  the  majority,  relieved  of  the  elevation  and 
importance  of  official  life,  go  back  to  renew  and  strengthen 
their  affections  with  the  people.  Tims  the  system  har 
monizes,  power  rotates,  and  the  republic  is  safe.  Great 
benefits  are  sometimes  in  the  minority,  and  great  evils 
often  in  the  majority,  but  with  a  little  patience  they 
inevitably  change  places.  No  man  in  this  Union  ever 
advocated  a  policy  or  a  party  that  was  not  at  some  time  or 
another  in  power.  And  no  man  or  party  has  a  right  to 
rebel  against  a  principle  whose  alternating  possibilities 
may  ensure  their  return  to  power. 

First  it  is  Biddle's  bank,  then  Benton's  hard  currency, 
Massachusetts'  tariff  and  South  Carolina's  free  trade,  anti- 
liquor,  anti-rent  and  Know-Nothing,  Wilmot  proviso,  and 
Dred  Scott  decision,  each  by.  turn  swearing  in  their  hobby  ; 
and  last  to  come — and  yet  to  last  always — Emancipation 
— poor,  wild-eyed,  closet-ridden  fanaticism.  Constitution- 
ally, pertinaciously  despised  abolitionism  !  Alternately 
the  fanatic's  dream  and  the  politician's  grave,  the  states- 
man's crime  and  the  nation's  goal.  Humanitv  driven  into 

O  ** 

a  corner,  reduced  to  a  seventy  years'  whisper,  started  to 
its  feet  by  the  cannon  of  Davis,  and  floated  by  the  blood 
of  both  North  and  South  into  the  fireside  possession  of 
every  slaveholder  or  hater  in  this  serf-banished  land. 

Negotiation  means  nothing  now  unless  it  means  inde- 
pendence out  of  the  Union,  or  insubordination  in  the 
Union.  It  means  a  foreign  power  built  upon  the  ruins  of 
our  domestic  hearth-stones  or  the  whole  republic,  with  the 
vital  element  of  all  republicanism  gone — obedience  to  the 
will  of  the  majority;  Union,  with  the  principle  of  unity 
dissolved ;  and  when  that  dies,  who  will  calm  the  jarring 
States?  What  will  give  us  dignity  and  consideration 
abroad?  "Where,  then,  is  the  great  republic?  What, 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  85 

then,  do  you  mean  by  an  American  citizen  ?  Because  one 
party  favored  the  African,  must  all  parties  give  up  this 
beautiful  Anglo-Saxon  America  ?  Because  the  Constitu- 
tion reserved  to  the  States  powers  not  necessary  to  the 
General  Government,  shall  those  powers  which  are  neces- 
sary, and  which  it  did  delegate  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment, be  at  the  mercy  of  the  sophistry  or  the  iniquity  of 
any  State  which  imagines  somebody  at  some  time  intends 
to  injure  them  ? 

What  do  we  mean  by  State  sovereignty  and  State 
pride  ?  The  States  are  spontaneous  communities,  born  of 
the  accidents  of  migration  and  settlement.  The  Union  is 
the  deliberate  act  of  the  best  wisdom  of  all  the  States. 
The  national  power  is  so  much  of  State  rights  surrendered 
to  protect  the  rest.  And  the  States  that  strike  at  the 
nation  strike  at  the  rights  of  the  States  that  make  the 
nation.  A  citizen  is  born  in  South  Carolina,  raises  cotton 
in  Alabama,  and  dies  in  California.  His  cradle  is  rocked 
under  one  jurisdiction,  his  pocket  filled  or  emptied  by 
another,  and  his  coffin  lowered  in  a  third  ;  but  he  is  always 
in  the  Union — that  most  continuous,  overshadowing  and 
comprehensive  home,  into  which  reach  his  loftiest  pride 
of  empire,  his  deepest  dreams  of  progress,  his  most  varied 
and  interlacing  pursuits  of  business,  ambition,  or  pleasure. 
Which  State  did  Jeff.  Davis  risk  his  neck  for  ?  Kentucky 
bore  him,  he  studied  treason  all  his  life  in  Mississippi, 
commenced  to  practice  it  in  Alabama,  graduated  a  classic, 
full  grown  culprit  in  Virginia,  and  is  fast  advancing  into 
those  states  of  despondency  and  despair  which  are  resum- 
ing their  sovereignty  over  him. 

How  came  the  Democratic  Party  to  father  so  distract- 
ing and  decimating  a  heresy  ?  I  confess  I  see  nothing  so 
attractive  in  the  present  position  of  that  party  to  stand  by 
it  when  Democracy  itself  is  perishing  in  their  hands.  Let 


86  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

us  distinguish  between  the  Democratic  community  and 
the  Democratic  organization.  The  Democratic  community 
are  sincere,  patriotic,  and  credulous.  If  they  vote  wrong, 
they  mean  right ;  if  they  follow  knaves  and  demagogues, 
they  believe  them  champions  of  the  principles  they  love 
and  cherish,  flow  well  the  Democratic  organization  know 
how  to  play  on  these  patriotic  chords.  By  vigorous  cries 
of  "  traitor,"  "  turncoat,"  "  go  with  your  party,"  "  he  is  a 
Black  Republican,"  "  stand  by  the  Democracy " — these 
are  the  magic  phrases  upon  which  they  presume  to  whip 
into  line  all  who  would  rebel  against  fraud,  treachery, 
imbecility,  and  disunion.  We  know  where  to  find  the 
peace  party.  They  are  open  and  honest.  Strong  advo- 
cates of  weak  governments,  they  hanker  for  ruins  as  Eng- 
lishmen do  for  tainted  cheese.  Muddled  with  Calhoun 
metaphysics  about  State  sovereignty,  in  the  winter  of  our 
fortunes,  they  go  South  for  their  politics,  as  invalids  go 
for  their  health.  The  larger  and  adroiter  wing  have  no 
theories  and  no  principles  but  for  power.  They  talk  war 
for  Northern  votes,  that  they  may  make  peace  for  South- 
ern votes.  Lusting  for  Southern  support,  they  would 
legalize  Southern  treason  and  rob  the  North  of  the  right 
to  a  stable  government,  by  turning  this  Union  into  the 
hall-door  of  a  tenement  house,  where  States  may  go  in  and 
out  and  track  their  dirt  as  they  please — while  we  intend 
that  it  shall  be  a  hermetically  sealed  jar  to  preserve  the 
fruits  of  our  fathers  from  so  destructive  an  atmosphere. 

I  charge  the  Democratic  leaders  with  acting  in  this 
crisis  without  dignity,  consistency,  common  sense,  or  cour- 
age. With  increasing  through  envy  and  disappointment 
the  very  evils  they  themselves  helped  to  produce.  I  charge 
them  with  going  to  the  Charleston  Convention  in  1860, 
and  with  their  numerical  minority  as  voters,  and  their 
numerical  majority  as  delegates,  attempting  to  force  on 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  87 

that  Convention  a  candidate  wlio,  by  his  part  in  disturb- 
ing the  Missouri  Compromise,  could  not  succeed  at  the 
North,  and  because  of  his  vote  on  the  Lecompton  bill 
would  fail  at  the  South.  Refusing  all  compromise  at  that 
time,  when  concession  might  have  saved  the  party  and  the 
country,  and  then  denouncing  the  Republicans  because 
they  would  not  conciliate  and  compromise  with  violence 
and  treason,  when  such  concessions  would  have  been  de- 
grading and  useless.  I  charge  the  Democratic  leaders  and 
presses  with  pretending  to  advocate  the  war,  stamping  the 
"  Union  at  all  hazards "  on  their  banners,  and  then 
nominating  peace  candidates  who,  after  being  smuggled 
through  the  ballot-boxes  with  the  war-cry,  seat  themselves 
down  in  Congress  to  vote  the  soldiers  in  rags  and  the 
country  in  ruins.  I  charge  them  with  trying  to  wean  the 
people  from  a  just  war,  by  artfully  exaggerating  its  faults, 
underrating  our  resources,  sneering  at  our  victories,  and 
sending  their  governors  and  ex-governors  whining  around 
the  country  to  twaddle  about  the  miseries  and  expenses 
of  this  conflict,  as  if  all  wars  were  not  miserable  and  ex- 
pensive, until  by  hearty  co-operation,  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
heart  to  heart,  we  bring  them  to  a  healthy  conclusion.  I 
charge  this  Jacobin  junta  with  striving  to  drown  the  sound 
of  their  own  blows  upon  the  country  in  the  cries  of  "  lib- 
erty in  danger,"  shrieking  against  arbitrary  arrest,  with 
the  whole  pack  loose  upon  the  land ;  with  attempting  to 
bring  the  military  and  civil  power  into  collision,  with  de- 
nouncing taxation  and  high  prices,  as  if  high  prices  did 
not  bring  high  wages,  while  the  inexhaustible  resources 
of  mines  and  lands,  and  tariff  and  trade  would  sink  twice 
the  debt  to  a  mere  bagatelle  in  a  few  years.  I  charge  this 
beautiful  crowd  with  essaying  to  degrade  the  Government 
and  excite  the  prejudices  of  labor  and  races,  by  calling  this 
a  war  for  the  negro,  when  they  know  that  the  white  man's 


88  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

republic  depends  for  its  life  upon  the  red  blood  that  is 
spilled  for  it  now.  In  vain  do  we  look  for  any  leading 
idea,  any  profound  national  sentiment  or  principle  under- 
lying this  selfish  opposition  wrangle  for  power. 

No  foreign  policy,  save  to  snarl  at  the  policy  which 
keeps  us  from  foreign  war.  No  domestic  censure  for  those 
who  would  for  ever  uproot  our  domestic  rights  and  interests. 
No  theory  of  treatment  in  dealing  with  the  deluded  de- 
spoilers  of  our  national  inheritance,  unless  we  give  up  all, 
to  those  who  would  break  up  all,  that  keeps  us  all, — a 
People — a  Country — a  Power.  Nothing  but  an  appeal  to 
the  lowest  passions  for  the  possession  of  the  highest  offices. 
"Vote  our  ticket  because  we  are  opposed  to  the  war. 
Rich  man,  war  is  expensive,  it  snatches  away  your  wealth. 
Poor  man,  war  is^impoverishing,  it  takes  away  your  work. 
Brave  man,  war  is  degrading,  there  is  no  glory  in  certain 
defeat."  Such  is  the  paralyzing  programme  a  spirited 
and  sagacious  community  are  called  upon  to  seat  in  the 
chair  of  George  Washington. 

Where  is  that  inspired,  courageous  old  Democratic 
Party  which  Jefferson  founded,  Jackson  immortalized  and 
James  Buchanan  buried  ?  Some  years  ago  there  could  be 
seen  stranded  on  the  shores  of  Long  Island  Sound  the 
shattered  remnants  of  a  once  noble  steamer.  Its  guards 
were  down,  its  rudder  gone,  its  machinery  broken  and 
useless.  Half  blackened  and  consumed  by  storm  and 
conflagration,  its  name  still  glared  out  in  full  capitals ;  the 
bell  which  had  so  often  rang  the  public  to  harbor  and 
home  still  sounded  meaninglessly  with  every  shifting  gale. 
Just  so  stands  the  Democratic  Party.  The  same  sound 
still  calls  to  us ;  but  it  is  the  toll  above  the  wreck.  The 
same  grand  old  name  still  waves  upon  the  campaign 
banners,  waylaying  us  for  our  suffrages  ;  but  the  vessel  we 
trusted  to  carry  us  through  every  sea — once  so  powerful 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  89 

and  popular — now  drifts  before  the  storm,  a  shrunken, 
helpless  and  snarling  minority.  Why  is  it  that  every  east 
wind  drizzles  upon  us  a  Democratic  defeat  ?  Why  is  it 
that  every  northern  blast  whirls  down  upon  us  a  Republi- 
can majority  ?  Why  is  it  that  the  West,  to  which  we  are 
told  to  look  for  clear  skies  and  fair  weather — the  West  is 
black  with  the  popular  refusal  to  restore  this  so-called 
Democracy  ?  Alas !  Uninterrupted  prosperity  has  wean- 
ed patriotism  and  wisdom  from  politics.  Little  men  have 
•been  permitted  to  trifle  with  great  principles,  and  death 
or  disgust  swept  all  the  Democratic  giants  from  the  helm. 
The  Democratic  Party  came  into  life  to  give  life  to  free 
institutions.  Many  heroes  of  the  Revolution  who  fought 
for  independence  had  no  faith  in  popular  government. 
After  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  this  distrust  ex- 
hibited itself  in  the  support  of  aristocratic  privileges  and 
monopolies.  The  Democratic  Party  was  organized  to 
protect  the  constitution  from  the  misconstruction  of  oli- 
garchs, and  the  people  from  all  oppressive  and  illiberal 
tendencies,  and  not  to  play  into  the  hands  of  despots  and 
traitors.  It  began  the  world  with  the  fears  of  Washington, 
the  hatred  of  Hamilton,  and  the  adoration  of  Jefferson 
and  Madison.  With  its  infant  hands  it  strangled  the 
Colossus  of  the  Revolution,  John  Adams,  and  threw  his 
party  and  his  policy  into  the  grave  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Has  it  not  advocated  and  administered  every  war 
since  the  revolution  ?  Did  it  not  banish  the  Indian  and 
silence  the  nullifier  ?  Did  it  not  chastise  England,  threaten 
France,  and  conquer  Mexico  ?  and  must  it  go  down  under 
the  red  waves  of  a  still  more  righteous  conflict  ?  The  old 
Democratic  Party  has  added  more  territory  to  the  Union 
than  the  peace  of  1783.  It  purchased  Louisiana,  negoti- 
ated Florida,  annexed  Texas,  and  dropped  all  the  gold,  of 
California  into  our  pockets ;  and  shall  such  a  counterfeit 


90  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

pinchbeck  successor  leave  it  hardly  a  State  on  which  to 
lay  its  dying  head  ? 

I  stand  by  the  Baltimore  ticket,  because  there  I  find 
my  country,  and  nowhere  else  in  this  election  do  I  know 
where  to  look  for  it.  It  plays  no  tricks  with  the  crisis. 
It  is  bold,  open,  manly  and  national.  On  that  platform 
sits  the  courage  of  the  North,  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the 
genius  of  war  and  the  safety  of  America.  It  calls  guilt 
by  its  right  name,  and  proposes  to  deal  with  it  in  the 
right  way.  It  holds  no  parley  with  those  who  ask  no 
quarter  and  mean  no  Union  ;  whom  if  you  face  you  must 
fight,  and  if  you  treat  with,  you  must  yield.  The  Balti- 
more resolutions  represent  the  highest  point  to  which 
courage  and  soul  have  raised  endangered  citizenship.  The 
Chicago  resolutions  proclaim  the  most  diminutive  propor- 
tions to  which  political  demoralization  has  shrunk  Ameri- 
can character.  I  see  there  only  an  English  libel  copied 
from  the  London  Times,  and  pronounced  by  a  few  shaking 
American  politicans  as  their  standard  of  political  duty. 
They  call  the  war  a  failure,  then  nominate  a  failure  to 
prove  it,  then  get  that  failure  to  write  the  platform  a 
failure,  and  now  it  only  wants  one  more  failure  on  the  8th 
of  November  to  finish  the  concern.  Indeed,  has  all  this 
tramp,  and  shot  and  blood  availed  nothing?  Speak, 
howling  Jeff.,  with  your  falling  spirits  and  your  disband- 
ing armies.  Speak,  ye  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast,  with 
but  one  port  to  welcome  the  sneaking  smuggler  to  your 
traitorous  breast.  Speak,  Sherman,  with  your  firm  foot 
upon  their  guilty  hearthstones,  where  you  but  stamp  it 
and  insurrection,  starved  and  ragged,  flies  wailing  before 
you.  Speak,  pinching  penury,  useless  energy.  Speak, 
worthless  currency,  hopeless  heresy,  heart-broken  com- 
munity. Your  falling  tears,  your  running  slaves,  your 
dying  brothers,  Northern  traitors  stunned,  foreign  inter- 


PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS.  91 

vention  dead,  do  you  tell  me  Abraham  Lincoln's  gripe  has 
no  vigor  in  it  ?  You  have  tried  him  in  war,  you  have 
tried  him  in  diplomacy,  you  have  wrestled  with  him  at 
the  foot  of  every  throne  in  Europe.  You  have  confronted 
him  for  thousands  of  miles  along  river,  marsh  and  forest, 
where  he  has  tracked  you  with  the  Indian's  scent  to  save 
you  from  the  Indian's  destiny.  You  have  summoned  to 
your  aid  swamp  fever,  ambush,  tomahawk  and  torpedo. 
You  promised  the  world  that  you  would  strap  the  North 
to  your  pole,  driving  the  continent  in  double  harness,  and 
where  are  you  now?  A  nameless,  penniless,  shivering 
outlaw !  shrinking  from  the  charter  signed  "  George  Wash- 
ington," and  dying  by  inches  with  the  powder  and  ball 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Is  this  a  failure,  oh,  successful 
Vallandigham,  with  that  hundred  thousand  adverse  ma- 
jority gazing  down  upon  your  sinking  platform  ?  We  who 
have  gone  back  to  the  barbarism  of  blows  to  secure  the 
civilization  of  votes — we  who  love  the  contention  of  thought 
better  than  the  contention  of  arms — who  prefer  always  to 
conquer  rather  by  convention  than  collision,  we  who  have 
had  no  heart  in  mowing  down  any  portion  of  the  soul 
and  strength  of  this  nation,  if  that  soul  and  that  strength 
could  be  captured  by  a  principle  instead  of  an  army — 
shall  we  not  to-day,  profiting  by  the  lessons  of  this  war 
and  this  election,  hold  up  that  which  best  keeps  us  up  ? 
The  soldier  from  his  farthest  front  of  danger  is  watching 
us  from  our  highest  stand  of  civil  duty.  Can  we  drop 
the  national  fortunes  into  the  slippery  hands  stretched 
forth  to  grasp  them  ?  W9uld  we  not  half-mast  the  flag 
on  every  battle-field,  for  the  fruits  of  victory  vanished,  for 
the  dead  too  uselessly  slain,  for  the  living  too  hopelessly 
dethroned,  divided,  debt-ridden  and  degraded  ?  No !  we 
will  treat  our  party  as  a  loved  mistress  who  has  jilted  us ; 
as  a  favorite  gun  that  will  not  fire ;  as  a  match  too  damp 


92  ADDRESS   ON    THE   PRESIDENTIAL   CRISIS. 

with  Southern  tears  to  light.  We  will  huddle  under  this 
Lincoln  shed  until  Democracy  finds  a  better  roof  to  shelter 
us  from  the  tempest ;  until  better  times  and  better  men 
shall  give  us  back  our  party,  purified  by  defeat,  and  our 
country,  relieved  of  the  sophist  and  the  traitor,  walks  forth 
once  more  among  %the  nations  of  the  earth,  a  redeemed, 
invincible  and  united  commonwealth. 


EULOOY 

ox 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

DELIVERED   AT   CHARLESTON,    SOUTH  CAROLINA, 

MAY  6TH,  1865. 


SOLDIERS  !  who  have  saved  the  national  life,  why  do  I 
stand  here  to-day  the  orator  of  desolation  and  death? 
Why  have  ye  half-masted  that  flag  which  now  waves  with 
new  meaning  over  our  whole  America  ? 

Your  arms  are  reversed,  and  yet  there  are  no  reverses  ; 
your  shields  are  craped  in  gloom,  and  yet  the  prospect  is 
clear  and  bright  before  us ;  no  one  dares  to  doubt  your 
sublime  courage  and  heroic  devotion,  and  yet  you  shrink 
here  to-day,  unnerved  and  helpless,  before  the  majesty  of 
this  bereavement. 

Alas !  our  national  deliverer  has  fallen  at  the  very 
gates  of  the  national  deliverance.  He  who  brought  down 
the  great  conspiracy  to  the  dust  is  himself  but  dust.  He 
at  whose  beck  a  million  of_armed  men  moved  upon  the 
foe,  had  not  one  arm  to  stay  the  cowardly  trigger  that 
swept  him  from  the  earth. 

For  four  years  crime  and  science  sent  forth  their 
bulleted  thousands  to  crush  or  capture  that  life  which  a 
single  finger  has  reached  and  rended.  Why  could  not 


94  EULOGY   ON 

the  genius  of  disappointment  capitulate  gracefully  ?  Why, 
when  it  had  lost  its  cause,  did  it  not  preserve  its  self-re- 
spect, and  so  descend  to  a  decent  instead  of  dastardly 
grave?  Not  that  we  would  hold  an  entire  community 
responsible  for  prompting  this  deed,  yet  the  teachings  of 
its  leaders,  the  calumnies  daily  and  hourly  heaped  on 
that  head  toiling  only  for  the  public  weal,  acting  on  a 
weak  and  insane  temperament,  produced  their  natural 
fruits  in  this  culminating  crime.  The  purity  of  our  Re- 
publican faith,  the  golden  stream  of  our  returning  pros- 
perity, has  been  stirred  and  stained  for  the  first  time  with 
the  murdered  life-blood  of  our  first  Citizen. 

Just  as  we  were  sitting  down  to  our  second  Union 
wedding  feast,  a  skeleton  stalks  in  upon  the  banquet. 

Just  as  we  had  reached  that  bend  in  the  river  of  Re- 
tribution, that  angle  of  anxiety,  where  the  implements  of 
adjustment  were  succeeding  the  elements  of  destruction ; 
just  as  the  blood  of  contending  armies  was  drying  up  and 
healing  up  on  those  silent  and  deserted  battle-fields  from 
which  the  South  was  limping  away  crushed  and  helpless, 
from  whence  the  North  was  stalking  forth  strong  and 
magnanimous,  the  demon  of  assassination  soars  to  the 
very  pinnacle  of  our  triumph,  treads  the  sacred  summit 
of  our  civil  system,  enters  with  its  grave  venom  the  thea- 
tre of  social  recreation,  where  sits  our  great  actor  on  the 
theatre  of  events ;  with  stealthy  step  and  ghastly  cheek 
it  leans  over  into  the  charmed  circle  amidst  which  power 
had  forgotten  everything  but  humor  and  friendship ;  its 
arm  lifts — and  our  great  and  good  friend  vanishes  forever. 
The  chair  of  state  sinks  into  the  bier  of  death,  on  which 
lies  the  cold  and  clammy  clod  that  was  once  the  warm 
and  useful  life  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Oh !  who  could 
have  the  heart  to  stop  the  beating  of  such  a  heart,  whose 
every  throb  was  for  the  glory  and  unity  of  our  whole 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  95 

America  !  What  brain  could  plan  the  dashing  out  of 
such  a  brain,  that  so  thoughtfully,  so  deeply,  for  years, 
had  been  planning  our  redemption  1  No  quarter  for  him 
who  never  drew  a  drop  of  blood  beyond  the  lines  of  war ! 
No  hope,  no  help  for  him  who  spared  guilty  thousands ! 
On  that  day,  all  the  pride  of  power,  all  the  glory  of  vic- 
tory, all  the -sense  of  superiority  over  foe  and  faction 
vanished.  We  heard  not  the  tramp  of  our  irresistible 
hosts,  we  saw  not  the  glittering  spears  of  our  successful 
heroes  as  they  moved  in  majesty  over  rebellion's  prostrate 
and  punished  hordes,  we  saw  nothing  through  our  falling 
tears — nothing  but  a  breathless  martyr  and  an  empty 
chair.  Thousands  had  fallen  to  help  victory ;  one,  one 
death  only  could  mar  it,  and  that  one  nursed,  cheered,  led 
us  up  the  mountain  of  our  trial  to  leave  us  lonely  and 
weeping  at  the  peak. 

Did  the  shallow  soul  who  took  this  life,  imagine  that 
he  could  obstruct  the  current  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  cause 
by  choking  it  up  with  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  corpse  ?  Was 
he  so  ignorant  of  his  victim's  past  as  not  to  know  that  he 
who  was  to  be  injured  was  of  all  souls  the  most  ready  to 
forgive  injuries?  The  South,  which  was  to  have  been 
avenged  by  his  death,  was  sure  of  more  mercy,  more  help 
in  their  helplessness  from  this  doomed  man,  than  any  un- 
known succeeding  chief  whom  the  exasperation  of  the 
North  might  precipitate  in  judgment  upon  the  culprits. 
And  even  if  the  card  sent  by  the  assassin  to  the  Yice- 
President  had  brought  him  within  range  of  his  shot,  had 
the  Speaker  of  the  House,  the  President  pro  tern,  of  the 
Senate,  the  heads  of  departments,  all  in  their  turn  vanished 
from  the  official  helm,  there  would  have  been  so  much 
merit  to  deplore,  so  many  funerals  to  attend,  but  nothing 
else  to  miss  or  bury.  No  revolution  to  announce,  no  sys- 
tem to  be  swept  away,  whose  roots  are  not  in  Washington, 


96  EULOGY   ON 

but  in  the  hearts  and  habits  of  American  citizenship. 
The  constitution  of  the  United  States  has  worked  its  way 
into  the  constitution  of  every  individual  life.  What  is 
grounded  in  human  nature,  can  only  be  eradicated  by 
human  nature.  The  habit  and  the  influence  of  this 
republican  system  is  so  sure  and  so  constant  that  the 
transition  from  one  incumbent  of  office  to  another,  is  too 
natural,  too  necessary,  to  be  disturbed  by  any  violent 
displacement.  For  every  LINCOLN  dead,  there  is  a  LIN- 
COLN to  follow,  without  jar  or  disconcertion,  beyond  the 
sentiment  and  gossip  of  the  hour.  A  LINCOLN,  too,  insist- 
ing on  the  same  righteous  conflict,  the  same  redeeming 
policy ;  a  policy  reached  and  shaped  thoughtfully,  gradu- 
ally, at  first  reluctantly,  feeling  its  way  timidly  through 
the  slow  relaxing  labyrinth  of  popular  approval,  until 
widely,  almost  unanimously,  not  by  the  freak  or  fanaticism 
of  a  man,  nor  in  the  hour  of  sure  and  exultant  conquest, 
but  proclaimed  in  suffering  and  in  doubt,  as  the  majestic 
resolve,  the  political  and  moral  necessity,  the  deep  self- 
convinced,  self-defensive  experience  of  a  people  deter- 
mined not  to  come  out  of  this  fearful  tempest  with  a  right 
half  yielded,  a  wrong  half  mended,  and  so  a  community 
wholly  again  insecure  and  vulnerable. 

When  a  government  depends  upon  an  intelligent  head, 
ruling  an  ignorant  mass,  the  death  of  the  one  may  be  the 
upheaval  of  the  other ;  but  when  the  Chief  of  the  State 
is  but  the  type  and  the  epitome  of  the  average  communi- 
ty, that  whole  community  must  die  before  the  system 
perishes.  Like  most  of  the  blunderers  who  have  attempted 
to  reason  on  the  results  of  our  war,  the  assassin  under- 
rated the  republican  system  in  educating  the  republican 
character.  Calumny  has  erred  more  than  it  has  benefited 
by  reading  history  ;  because  Rome  split  and  Europe  usu- 
ally emerges  from  her  great  convulsions  with  old  political 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  97 

lines  obliterated,  and  a  new  construction  of  her  civil  rela- 
tions, the  great  American  Republic  must  degenerate  into 
the  same  disruptions  and  divisions — forgetting  that  uni- 
versal suffrage  and  universal  knowledge  were  arches  01 
salvation  upon  which  no  other  republic  had  ever  rested. 
A  people  who  have  the  intelligence  to  see  the  right  and 
the  implement  to  secure  it,  are  not  born  to  meet  the  fate 
of  nations  who  pass  from  commotion  to  commotion,  with 
no  interest  and  no  voice  in  the  result,  because  with  no 
means  to  guide  or  influence  it.  "  The  great  republic  is 
gone,"  says  the  wise  European  philosophy  of  1861. 
"  Years  of  war,  four  or  five  republics,  and  then  universal 
monarchy,"  exclaims  the  Count  De  Moray.  After  the 
first  six  month's,  England  was  to  interfere;  then  came 
another  flash  of  prophecy ;  the  military  was  to  crush  the 
civil  power — a  new  Napoleon  was  to  drive  both  houses  of 
Congress  out  of  the  windows  of  the  Capitol. 

Thiers'  French  Revolution  and  Headley's  Napoleon 
and  his  Marshals  filled  the  weaker  intelligence  with  these 
nightmares,  as  if  soldiers,  growing  up  and  blooming  all 
over  with  the  blessings  of  such  a  government,  possess  the 
temptations  to  lawlessness  of  the  French  soldier,  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  civil  life  of  the  past  but  by  its  op- 
pressions ;  and  who  had  acquired  no  discipline  or  experi- 
ence of  years  to  shape  or  steady  whatever  better  policy  he 
might  think  he  was  contending  for.     Then  came  the  plau- 
sible financial  prophecy — that  the  national  purse  could  net 
stand  the  expense  of  the  national  safety — the  difficulty 
was  too  vast,  the  outlay  too  enormous.    No  other  people 
had  ever  met  such  a  strain  upon  its  resources  without 
bankruptcy.    As  if  any  other  people  ever  possessed  such 
boundless  resources  to  draw  from,  such  floods  of  emigra- 
tion,  such  freedom  from  debt,   such  vast  undeveloped 
treasure  from  ocean  to  ocean,  such  awakened  industry,. 


98  EULOGY   ON 

and  such  universal  enterprise,  which  no  nation  in  any 
hour  of  civil  peace  or  civil  commotion  could  call  upon  to 
prop  up  its  princes  or  its  principles. 

And  now  comes  this  most  foul,  fatal,  and  depraved 
prophet,  who,  more  cruelly  and  terribly  personal  in  the 
application  of  his  theory,  imagines  that  if  he  can  only 
strike  down  some  of  the  higher  officers  of  the  government, 
the  confusion,  the  perturbation,  the  embarrassment  that 
succeeds  the  blow  may  topple  down  the  principle  and  the 
structure  of  the  government  itself;  and  so  his  dear  South, 
lying  helpless  at  the  far  end  of  the  plank,  suddenly,  by 
the  weight  of  the  fall,  is  lifted  again  to  rise  and  rule  by 
anarchy  if  not  by  victory.  Never  before  has  this  stealthy 
state  corrector — born  of  Mexican  confusion*  and  European 
oppression — aimed  its  ghastly  reform  at  America's  benefi- 
cent republicanism.  The  spirit  of  assassination  is  not  a 
reasoning  spirit ;  if  it  had  the  mental  energy  to  think,  the 
agitation  of  ideas  would  purify,  it.  It  is  a  senseless, 
nerveless,  mindless  monster !  too  weak  to  argue,  and  too 
timid  to  fight  its  victim ;  so  it  conceives  its  blow  in  mean- 
ness, and  strikes  in  darkness.  Every  assassin  is  a  morbid 
egotist,  who,  brooding  on  one  idea,  whether  of  revenge  or 
reform,  reduces  to  a  selfish  personality  the  cause  of  his 
differences.  Great  minds  take  their  chances  with  great 
principles.  If  they  fail,  the  great  man  is  appeased  by  the 
consciousness  of  right  or  the  martyrdom  of  failure.  The 
little  mind,  with  no  vision  to  comprehend  either,  substi- 
tutes nervous  excitement  for  mental  contemplation ;  and 
so,  from  love  of  notoriety  or  hatred  of  those  who  differ 
with,  or  surpass  him,  becomes  an  assassin.  Calhoun  could 
stab  a  nation  with  his  logic,  but  how  his  nature'  would 
have  recoiled  at  such  an  enforcement.  In  the  whole  his- 
tory of  assassination  no  striking  man  ever  strikes  the  blow ; 
the  obscure  Brutus  and  his  accomplices  flow  down  to  us 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  99 

only  on  Caesar's  blood.  Richard  the  Third  threw  on  de- 
graded royalty  no  brighter  gleam  than  flashed  from  his 
perpetually  descending  blade.  Ravillac,  who  murdered 
Henry  of  France,  was  a  low,  irresponsible  fanatic.  The 
murderer  of  the  Due  de  Berry,  in  depriving  France  of  an 
amiable  sovereign,  blasted  more  on  that  day,  than  he  had 
ever  benefited  in  all  his  days.  Russia's  Peter  and  Rus- 
sia's Paul  and  England's  Perceval,  all  fell  by  men  who 
never  lifted  themselves  by  word  or  deed  above  the  little 
light  that  guided  them  to  another's  heart.  And  now, 
to-day,  America's  LINCOLN  comes  down  £rom  a  height 
loftier  than  his  office,  torn  from  the  embrace  of  two  mil- 
lions of  uplifting  votes  by  the  blow  of  a  second-rate  mem- 
ber of  a  second-class  profession.  The  people  who  turned 
their  backs  on  his  acting  have  had  to  face  his  crime.  He 
who  knew  nothing  of  government  has  succeeded .  in  em- 
barrassing it.  He  who  spit  upon  the  flag  has  half-masted 
it  from  Maine  to  California.  The  player  who  could  not 
secure  the  attention  of  a  single  house  has  shook  a  conti- 
nent and  startled  a  century. 

Yet  when  we  remember  how  every  life  at  all  times  is 
at  the  mercy  of  whatever  insignificance  or  malignity 
chooses  to  assail  it,  we  should  thank  the  assassin  for  spar- 
ing ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  to  us  so  long.  A  life  that  has 
passed  through  so  many  phases  of  public  sentiment,  so 
many  important  and  momentous  public  actions,  that  life 
needed  to  be  spared  if  it  would  be  tested  as  the  represen- 
tative of  the  peculiar  perils  and  novel  trials  of  the  Ameri- 
can people — this  life  whose  first  official  mission  was  to 
prove  the  right  of  the  people  to  change  their  past  peace- 
ably in  the  orbit  of  the  constitution ;  to  renovate  the  old 
routine,  to  vindicate  a  new  policy,  to  raise  up  and  warm 
up  more  earnest  men  in  the  channels  of  public  communi- 
cation, to  face  anger  without  fearing  or  provoking  it,  to 


100  EULOGY   ON 

rebuke  without  wronging  a  community  who  had  nothing 
to  fear  because  no  one  to  injure  them.  Let  us  thank  the 
assassin  for  sparing  him  in  that  trembling  interval  between 
the  ballot  and  the  oath^  between  the  6th  of  November, 
1860,  and  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  when  the  elect  of  the 
people  was  'permitted  to  take  the  people's  chair  before  it 
was  wrenched  from  him  by  the  people's  foe.  Let  us  be 
grateful  to  the  forbearing  fiend  for  withholding  his  hand 
during  that  long  range  of  eighteen  months  of  mere  defen- 
sive peace-beseeching  war,  when  the  innocent  purposes  of 
the  President's  election  were  so  fully  proved  by  the  perti- 
nacity with  which  he  refused  to  disturb  slavery.  "When 
that  faithful  hand,  now  cold  in  death,  held  on  the  rocking 
and  reeling  institution,  through  all  the  crimson  sleet  and 
blinding  mist  and  fire  of  those  murderous  legions,  and  the 
lurid  blaze  from  those  incendiary  ships  which  were  shoot- 
ing and  burning  out  of  the  heart  of  the  North  all  the  for- 
bearance which  self-defence  dictates  to  either  policy  or 
humanity. 

Let  us  thank  the  wretch,  too,  for  that  further  delay 
when  the  hour  came  for  changing  the  government  policy 
without  changing  its  sense  of  duty ;  when  the  foe  is  to  be 
punished  more  effectually  by  withholding  the  element 
that  encourages  his  crime ;  when,  having  spared  to  the 
enemy  more  than  he  deserved,  he  could  now  concede  to 
his  friends  all  they  asked ;  could  help  the  fallen  and  the 
favored  race,  help  the  cause,  the  flag  and  the  age,  by  one 
word,  and  that  word,  Emancipation.  It  was  something 
to  be  permitted  to  pronounce  it,  to  shut  up  a  crime  by 
opening  our  mouth,  to  break  a  chain  as  well  as  a  conspir- 
acy, to  shoot  this  redeeming  ray  in  the  face  of  the  thou- 
sands who  died  to  stifle  it,  to  throw  such  a  light  on  this 
nation  as  no  sun  of  genius  or  glory  had  ever  shot  along 
our  American  sky. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  101 

And  now,  after  all  the  toil,  the  anguish,  the  doubt,  the 
inexperience,  the  faith,  and  the  courage  of  four  years  of 
conscientious  labor  in  unparalleled  fields  of  statesmanship, 
it  was  something,  too,  to  be  permitted  to  go,  with  all  his 
works,  his  fears  and  hopes,  to  the  ballot-box,  and  from  out 
its  deep  tones  to  hear  that  sweetest  music  in  the  ear  of  all 
candidacy,  "  Go  forth,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  to 
a  new  lease  of  labor  and  glory."  We  thank  our  stars 
that  this  star  was  not  quenched  until  the  darkness  which 
brooded  over  us  had  been  scattered  forever,  crime  pun- 
ished, freedom  safe,  and  the  nation  paramount.  These 
were  the  aims  of  his  policy  and  are  the  results  of  his 
efforts,  and  no  bullet  stepped  between  them  and  the 
crowning  consummation  of  his  life.  They  conclude  his 
history,  they  round  his  eulogy,  and  they  must  crown  his 
immortality.  The  scholar  cannot  read  his  annals  and 
doubt  that  he  was  equal  to  the  events  which  he  adminis- 
tered, or  that  the  events  themselves  were  equalled  by  any- 
thing American  since  the  advent  of  "Washington. 

If  we  look  closely  into  the  history  of  preceding  admin- 
istrations, we  see  how  obviously  connected  was  their  line 
of  policy  growing  out  of  the  events  that  preceded  them  ; 
how,  in  the  unresisted  exercise  of  its  functions,  the  execu- 
tive office  is  but  comparatively  plain  sailing,  despite  of 
errors,  and  wranglings,  and  threats,  which  an  appoint- 
ment may  modify,  a  message  influence,  or  a  veto  arrest. 

The  nullification  of  South  Carolina  in  1833  never  dis- 
turbed even  a  sheet  of  paper  in  the  War  Office  or  State 
Department.  Most  of  our  constitutional  disputes,  hereto- 
fore, have  pointed  to  an  increase  or  decrease  in  the  powers 
to  be  exercised  under  that  instrument ;  never  to  an  extinc- 
tion of  its  functions  over  any  State  or  section.  Since 
Shay's  very  trivial  rebellion,  not  a  pistol  had  been 
snapped  in  the  face  of  the  grand  old  charter. 


102  EULOGY   ON 

No  one  administration  since  the  adoption  of  the  con- 
stitution has  been  confronted  with  any  graver  question 
than  the  charter  of  a  bank,  the  reduction  of  a  tariff,  the 
status  of  a  Territory,  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty,  or  the 
admission  of  a  State,  out  of  which  logical  convulsions 
often  have  arisen,  but  which  the  good  sense  of  the  people 
or  the  government  have  invariably  adjusted.  Mr.  LIN- 
COLN'S administration  was  the  most  trying,  because  it 
found  itself  not  with  the  measures  of  government  disputed, 
but  its  very  existence  denied.  With  the  oath  over  him 
to  administer  for  all  the  States,  he  found  State  after  State 
renouncing  a  jurisdiction  he  dare  not  release  and  could 
not  control.  In  being  peremptorily  called  on  to  accept 
the  secession  of  States,  he  was  invited  to  arrogate  powers 
not  granted  to  him  in  the  instrument  he  was  bound  to 
support.  Washington's  term  of  office  was  a  period  of 
serious  trial  and  anxiety  to  the  friends  of  republican  gov- 
ernment. Nothing  less  than  the  influence  of  such  a  hero 
could  have  secured  the  successful  adoption  of  a  constitu- 
tion with  which  so  many  wise  men  differed. 

To  secure  a  public  opinion  that  would  acquiesce  in  its 
jurisdiction,  to  reconcile  the  antagonism  of  leaders  who 
distrusted  each  other's  motives,  and  differed  in  their  con- 
struction of  the  instrument  they  were  aiding  to  administer, 
to  substitute  personal  character  and  personal  respect  for 
tradition  and  experience,  required  a  force  of  will,  a  delica- 
cy of  tact,  an  elevation  of  character,  a  superior  confidence 
in  the  man  which  only  such  a  hero  could  inspire.  Popu- 
lar intelligence  in  the  time  of  our  fathers  would  never  have 
accepted  this  constitution  from  a  conviction  of  its  bene- 
fits. One  party,  fresh  from  the  memory  of  British  injus- 
tice, were  for  construing  away  all  constraint  on  their 
actions;  the  other,  more  thoughtful,  and  fearful  of  the 
caprices  of  the  multitude,  insisted  on  approximating  to 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  103 

the  conservatism  of  monarchy.  Washington,  calmer  and 
clearer  than  either,  admonished  them  of  both  extremes, 
strenuously  administering  the  government  in  a  spirit  of 
moderation  and  harmony  that  permanently  secured  us  the 
beautiful  system  under  which  we  have  lived  and  prospered. 
The  administration  of  John  Adams  involved  no  more  im- 
portant question  than  the  necessity  of  relieving  the  nation 
of  a  Chief  who  had  no  faith  in  popular  government.  He 
was  merely  an  eloquent,  defiant  electoral  accident,  a  sort 
of  intellectual  isthmus  between  the  harmonious  grandeur 
of  "Washington  and  the  great  popular  leadership  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  The  presidency  of  Mr.  Jefferson  originated 
that  democratic  policy  which  for  fifty  years  powerfully 
influenced  the  nation,  and  settled  on  a  more  comprehen- 
sive basis  the  influence  of  the  people  in  public  affairs — the 
grave  of  Federalism  and  the  nursery  of  a  new  political 
organization,  which,  under  different  names,  has  preserved 
its  distinctive  national  disorganizing  features  ever  since. 
"Who  now  had  the  keener  vision,  Hamilton  or  Jefferson  ? 
In  that  storm  of  contending  statesmanship,  which  almost 
shook  the  great  chief  from  his  chair,  was  it  not  Hamilton 
who  prophesied  that  the  Federal  Government  had  most  to 
fear  from  the  encroachments  of  the  States ;  and  was  it  not 
•Jefferson  who,  in  his  dread  of  central  power,  encouraged, 
under  the  captivating  and  popular  terms  of  "  State 
Eights,"  "  Federal  Usurpation,"  all  those  little  local  laxi- 
tudes  whose  continuous  buzz  has  so  impeded  for  fifty 
years  the  music  of  the  Union,  and  at  last,  through  ambi- 
tion and  cunning,  and  the  slow  but  sure  unloosening  of 
national  ties  by  the  intellectual  training  of  the  Southern 
young  American  in  this  plausible  but  perilous  political 
school,  brought  us  to  this  doubly  perilous  brink  ?  Our 
real  destiny,  both  political  and  geographical,  begins  with 
this  administration.  To  it  we  are  indebted  for  all  that 


104  EULOGY   ON 

portion  of  our  possessions  included  in  the  States  of  Louis- 
iana, Arkansas,  Kansas,  and  the  Territories  of  Nebraska 
and  "Washington.  It  laid  the  basis  of  our  future  states- 
manship, and  with  it  many  of  our  subsequent  trials  and 
dangers.  James  Madison  succeeded  to  the  legacy  of  Eng- 
lish difficulties  bequeathed  to  liim  by  the  preceding  rule. 
Though  a  statesman  of  profound  talents  and  amiable  vir- 
tues, no  man  waa  ever  more  abused  for  timidity  and  in- 
consistency. One  of  the  principal  framers  of  the  Consti- 
tution, he  felt  too  deeply  the  responsibility  that  authorship 
involved  not  to  act  cautiously  in  any  matter  affecting  its 
security.  The  issues  presented  during  his  administration 
— w.ar  with  England  and  the  assertion  of  our  freedom  on 
the  sea  as  well  as  on  the  land — were  of  a  nature  rather  to 
unite  than  divide  the  nation.  It  was  in  his  time  that  the 
famous  Hartford  Convention  met — the  body  to  which 
Southern  Secessionists  proudly  pointed  as  a  proof  that  the 
Northern  States  had  contemplated  resorting  to  secession 
as  well  as  themselves.  Unfortunately  for  the  argument, 
the  Convention,  which  peaceably  assembled,  as  peaceably 
dissolved,  without  resolving  to  raise  even  a  finger  against 
their  best  friend.  If  the  North  ever  talk  rebellion,  they 
talk  on  till  they  talk  themselves  back  to  a  more  dutiful 
allegiance.  In  the  administration  of  James  Monroe, 
which  is  called  by  historians  the  era  of  good  feeling, 
occurs  the  first  warning  of  that  terrible  rending  which 
slavery  had  in  store  for  us.  Yet  the  storm  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  was  quelled  by  a  healthier  public  feel- 
ing than  felled  us.  The  succeeding  President,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  seated  in  the  trough  of  the  sea,  between 
the  wave  of  the  Missouri  difficulty  and  the  billow  of  Nul- 
lification, moves  on  an  easy  swell  to  peace  and  oblivion. 
Then  we  come  to  the  iron  days  of  our  inflexible  Jackson, 
a  soldier  by  feeling  and  profession,  and  no  fiercer  Wear  on 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  105 

his  hands  than  to  hunt  the  Indian  in  a  swamp,  silence 
France  with  a  demand  for  indemnity,  South  Carolina  with 
a  threat,  and  the  great  Bank  with  a  veto.  The  succeeding 
regime  is  but  an  elongation  of  this  master  influence,  mem- 
orable for  the  secession  of  gold  and  silver  from  the  cur- 
rency, and  a  war  of  words  over  the  burning  Caroline  as  it 
plunged  down  the  awful  arjyss  of  Niagara.  "With  the 
advent  of  Tylerism,  comes  the  second  instalment  of  ABRA- 
HAM LINCOLN'S  future  trials,  in  the  annexation  of  Texas ; 
then  the  election  of  Polk,  with  the  sweeping  down  of  the 
great  and  good  men  of  both  political  parties;  the  war 
with  Mexico;  the  coming  in  of  golden  lands,  and  the 
going  out  of  the  golden  leaders  who  had  kept  up  the 
health,  the  vigor,  and  the  integrity  of  the  national  senti- 
ment. Later  still,  the  Fillmore  Administration  advances 
with  the  Compromise  of  1850 — the  last  briefly  successful 
struggle  against  the  progressing  arrogance  of  the  slave 
power,  when  the  dying  giants  of  our  land  threw  the 
weight  of  their  names  and  nerves  into  the  death  struggle 
for  peace  and  justice,  expiring  at  the  very  threshold  of 
their  labors  and  leaving  a  helpless  nation  to  drift  .on 
towards  blinding  darkness  and  blood. 

With  the  Pierce  Administration  arrives  the  era  of 
little  men  and  great  conspirators,  of  harmony  disturbed 
and  compacts  broken,  of  fresh  graves  opened  and  jewels 
robbed  from  our  illustrious  dead. 

In  this  administration  the  Republican  party  was  born 
— in  this  administration  was  cut  the  timber  from  that 
Black  Fore.st  which  was  to  kindle  our  recent  unholy  con- 
flagration; and  thus  these  master  mischief-makers  pile 
high  the  burden  under  which  the  later  LINCOLN  is  to 
stagger.  Soon  the  banner-blunderer,  Buchanan,  breaks 
on  the  lowering  sky ;  around  him  gather  all  the  ghastly 
gamesters  for  empire,  who  read  their  doom  in  the  threat- 


106  EULOGY   ON 

ening  minorities  soon  to  rise  to    chastising    majorities 
against  their  sacrilegious  plottings. 

Here  was  woven  the  cotton  shroud  in  which  we  have 
laid  the  dead  South  of  the  past — here  was  born  in  the 
Convention  and  vote  of  1860  that  pillar  of  fire  for  our 
night,  that  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  whom  this  day  we  mourn 
and  bless.  This  son  of  the  prairie  has  found  a  high  moun- 
tain range  on  which  to  rest  his  great  and  good  deeds. 
"We  all  remember  the  content  of  1860.  In  that  crash  of 
parties  conscientious  citizens  hardly  knew  under  which 
fragment  to  retreat  with  their  bewildered  opinions ;  whe- 
ther to  go  rail-splitting  at  Chicago  or  hair-splitting  at 
Charleston ;  whether  to  suffer  respectable  extinction  with 
Bell  and  Everett,  or  to  be  frantically  organized  under  the 
Southern  Cross  with  Breckenridge  and  Lane. 

The  storm  rose,  the  sun  darkened,  the  earth  reeled ;  on 
those  heaving  waves  walked  the  trembling  fortunes  of 
America,  demanding  to  be  reassured  by  the  exercise  of  a 
warmer  fellowship  and  a  more  comprehensive  patriotism. 
The  Republican  convention,  too  full  of  fear  for  favoritism, 
drops  the  giant  of  the  Empire  State  and  applies  a  more 
soothing  sedative  to  the  nervous  commonwealth.  ABRA- 
HAM LINCOLN,  though  untried,  was  also  uncursed ;  though 
unknown,  for  that  very  reason  he  could  not  be  unpopular. 
And  now  who  is  this  man  they  have  caught  up  in  a  de- 
spairing tempest  and  lashed  fast  to  this  unsteady  wheel  ? 
One  indifferent  Congressional  term,  one  unsuccessful  Sen- 
atorial contest,  are  all  the  political  capital  he  can  drop 
into  that  anxious  ballot-box.  Yet  they  knew  the  stout 
character  looming  behind  that  lean  reputation.  They 
knew  how  much  power  a  citizen  may  exhibit  without  the 
official  exercise  of  power.  How  the  open  life  of  the  press, 
the  stump,  and  the  tribune  keep  our  American  citizenship 
in  constant  communication  with  the  men  and  the  states- 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  107 

manship  of  the  times.  How  the  active  sympathies  of  the 
observing  intellectual  man  broaden  and  deepen  the  range 
of  his  vision,  and  silently  accumulate  for  him  a  fund  of 
civil  helpfulness  always  valuable  and  always  liable  to  be 
called  upon  in  great  political  emergencies.  Born  in  Ken- 
tucky, a  Southern  State,  reared  in  Illinois,  a  Northern 
State,  he  possessed  just  that  graft  which,  quickening  with 
neither  extreme,  would  rule  both  in  harmony.  The  sym- 
pathy of  the  South  in  feeling,  the  energy  of  the  North  in 
action,  a  pure  life,  a  tested  intellect,  a  varied  experience 
identified  with  a  new  and  growing  community,  who  had 
earned  by  numbers,  by  patience,  by  population  and 
power,  a  Presidential  candidate ;  proved  in  general  fidelity 
to  party  principles,  yet  unskilled  in  all  partisan  tactics 
and  all  vulgar  partisan  schemings;  with  none  of  those 
weaknesses  so  common  to  the  most  extraordinary  men, 
without  JVebster's  convivial  excess,  or  Cicero's  vanity, 
or  Bacon's  love  of  money,  this  spotless  spirit  rides  the 
tempest,  grinding  no  axe,  but  rebellion,  to  powder,  and 
exhibiting  no  weakness  but  the  lack  of  instant  power  to 
accomplish  it.  Where  in  the  long  line  of  our  administra- 
tors will  you  find  more  real  dignity  of  character  with  less 
assumption  of  it?  While  other  Presidents  economize 
their  strengtli  with  official  reserve  and  occasional  seclusion 
from  those  incessant  personal  interviews  which  wear  out 
the  Presidential  energies  quite  as  much  as  more  promi- 
nent exertion,  Mr.  LINCOLN'S  sweep  of  good  nature  blew 
down  all  the  fences  around  his  position,  and  so  left  him 
out  in  common  where  the  whole  herd  felt  at  liberty  to 
browse.  He  was  the  first  President  who  had  time  to  see 
and  hear  every  one.  In  civil  war  he  has  been  civil  to  all. 
Blood  never  heated  his  blood.  Place  never  made  him 
forget  his  place.  Thoughtful,  studious,  abstemious,  indus- 
trious, the  man  of  the  people.  Elected  for  all,  with  an 


108  EULOGY   ON 

ear  for  all,  at  home  always  in,  his  hand  always  -out,  ten 
chances  to  one,  if  you  or  I  go  to  the  White  House  with  a 
new  invention  to  cradle  wheat,  a  telegram  from  Gen. 
Grant's  last  battle  does  not  surprise  him  with  the  instru- 
ment in  his  hand  testing  its  merits  in  front  of  the  "White 
House.  This  is  the  democracy  of  manners  linked  to  the 
democracy  of  principles.  Sympathy  for  man  which  place 
cannot  displace,  and  which  springs  only  from  the  noblest 
natures,  tested  by  the  trials  of  the  loftiest  station.  The 
war  has  produced  nothing  more  remarkable  than  the 
growth  of  this  character  on  the  cause  and  the  age.  Our 
earlier  chiefs  received  the  Presidency  as  the  crowning 
official  consummation  of  the  people's  gratitude  for  great 
and  decisive  services  in  their  behalf.  The  later  Presi- 
dents, from  Polk  to  Buchanan,  were  men  of  moderate 
ability  and  of  indifferent  usefulness.  Lucky  creatures  of 
availability,  for  party  favors  they  performed  &  party's 
behests,  imparting  nothing  to  high  station,  but  a  warning 
against  the  principle  that  placed  them  there.  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN,  born  of  the  same  principle  of  availability,  the 
nominee  and  the  elect  of  a  mere  party,  the  sins  of  that 
party  to  embarrass  his  administration  of  the  cares  and 
troubles  of  the  country,  an  unknown  man  grappling  with 
and  groping  through  unknown  dangers,  many  trembled 
for  the  vote  they  had  given  when  they  saw  the  huge  black 
cloud  charged  with  that  extraordinary  thunder  lowering 
down  on  that  seemingly  ordinary  creation  of  partisan 
mano3uvring.  Some  believed  at  first  that  the  people  had 
elected  £  joke  to  administer  a  calamity;  that  we  had 
merely  called  on  an  awkward  undertaker  to  lay  out  the 
cold  remains  of  American  liberty,  so  gracelessly  did  he 
seem  to  shuffle  up  to  the  temple  of  fame.  Every  man 
who  found  the  President  differing  with  his  little  way  of 
settling  our  troubles,  was  sure  we  must  go  to  ruin  with 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  109 

such  an  ignorant  pilot.  Steadily  and  surely  this  per- 
plexed chief  toiled  on  through  this  mountain  of  misrepre- 
sentation ;  ever  the  result  of  capacity  not  yet  proved,  of 
plans  not  yet  matured,  of  results  not  yet  concluded,  and  a 
country  still  to  be  saved.  How  often,  on  winter  nights, 
Heaven's  borealian  light  has  been  mistaken  for  some  dis- 
tant barn-yard  conflagration;  how  long,  on  our  winter 
nights,  we  were  in  doubt  whether  our  light  upon  a  hill 
was  but  a  rubbish  blaze,  to  go  out  with  the  blast,  or  the 
sun  that  was  to  pierce  the  cloud  and  light  us  to  redemp- 
tion. Never  had  great  power  been  wielded  with  such 
utter  absence  of  egotism  and  self-sufficiency.  Almost 
every  administration  has  been  a  paraphrase  of  monarch- 
ical reserve  in  its  communication  and  intercourse  with  the 
people.  Now,  in  a  moment  of  the  greatest  peril,  when 
trouble  provoked  and  provided  for  the  power  of  a  despot, 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  used  authority  with  the  sympathy  of  a 
friend,  confronting  crime  in  an  odd  and  artless  way,  that 
pursued  it  with  the  restlessness  of  a  fiend  and  punished  it 
with  the  gentleness  of  a  father.  "With  what  concise  and 
plaintive  music  in  his  annual  messages  and  occasional 
addresses  he  chants  the  misereres  of  our  struggle,  a  model 
of  new  and  sympathizing  eloquence  in  statesmanship. 

How  anxiously  and  readily  he  turns  to  any  source, 
however  irresponsible,  for  any  clue,  however  insignificant, 
that  may  lead  to  peace.  How  earnestly,  at  Niagara  Falls, 
he  plunges  into  the  foaming  question  with  "  whomsoever 
it  may  concern,"  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  he  will 
snatch  them  from  the  boiling  abyss.  How  eagerly  he 
explores  the  windings  of  the  James  and  Appomattox  for 
the  lost  jewel,  taking  the  risk  of  seeming  undignified 
rather  than  unyielding.  Willingly  he  holds  the  guilty 
hand  in  his  grasp  if  there  is  the  slightest  hope  the  dove 
may  perch  there.  Thus,  step  by  step,  year  by  year, 


110  EULOGY   ON 

through  trial,  through  contumely,  ridicule,  hatred,  the 
scorn  of  a  foreign  and  the  target  of  a  domestic  foe,  misap- 
prehended even  by  friends,  slowly,  hopefully,  certainly  at 
last — the  people  see  and  the  world  acknowledges  the 
great,  good,  peerless  man  that  the  convention  of  I860 
unwittingly  stumbled  upon.  The  calumniator  is  silenced, 
the  battle  is  finished,  the  smoke  lifts,  and  there  stands  our 
giant  friend  on  the  far  height  of  our  triumph,  holding  in 
one  hand  a  captured  South,  and  in  the  other  the  redeeihed 
bondmen. 

The  grandest  painting  in  all  history,  because  proclaim- 
ing the  grandest  aim  of  all  human  effort,  to  baffle  crime, 
which  God  abhors,  and  save  freedom,  which  all  men  love. 

Those  who  threw  shells  at  this  life  now  go  trembling 
with  flowers  to  his  grave,  calling  on  this  departed  spirit, 
this  abused  saviour,  this  Illinois  ape,  this  tyrant,  this 
hyena,  to  plead  with  that  avenging  "judgment,"  for  this 
mercy  their  last  great  crime  robbed  them  of.  "Who  will 
say  that  the  man  who  achieved  these  great  results  had  not 
greatness  in  its  best  sense  ?  The  moral  greatness  of  forti- 
tude and  purity  of  character,  the  mental  greatness  of  wis- 
dom to  see  farther,  and  eloquence  to  express  better  the 
duties  and  the  relations  of  the  hour,  than  any  citizen, 
officially  or  otherwise,  which  contemporary  America 
could  furnish.  Does  not  this  simplicity,  this  strength, 
this  persevering  earnestness,  this  hopeful,  joyous,  single- 
heartedness,  this  moral  humility,  this  mental  indepen- 
dence, this  eloquence,  too  busy  with  the  heart  and  the 
salvation  of  the  hour' to  be  subtle,  ornate  or  elaborate, 
this  cordial  familiar  miracle  of  work  and  humor,  of  faith 
and  fear,  of  anxiety  and  energy,  this  eccentric  dispenser 
of  a  most  eccentric  era,  wliQ  will  say  that,  with  all  his 
errors,  his  defects  of  insight  and  culture,  this  man  was  not 
miraculously  meant  to  meet  the  precise  exigencies  of  our 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Ill 

calamity  ?  Who  will  say  that  these  high,  broad  Ameri- 
can characteristics  are  not  just  the  needs,  with  a  little 
more  official  experience,  which  make  up  the  great  com- 
prehensive American  necessities  of  our  peculiar  states- 
manship ? 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  came  into  the  world  during  the 
early  part  of  this  century.  The  compeer  of  Napoleon  in 
power,  he  is  also  his  cotemporary  in  birth.  Though  the 
same  waters  washed  the  jurisdiction  of  both,  when  born, 
how  vast  was  the  difference  in  their  stations.  Louis 
Napoleon  was  the  favorite  nephew  of  the  mightiest  con- 
queror of  all  ages.  Born  under  the  blaze  of  that  eagle 
eye — announced  to  the  world  with  glad  salvos  of  artillery 
— rocked  in  the  golden  cradle  of  the  luxurious  Tuilleries, 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  rude  helplessness  that  struggled 
on  the  far  frontier  of  unsettled  America,  amid  rustic  huts 
and  howling  wildernesses  and  Indian  war  whoops,  whose 
cradle,  if  he  had  any,  was  rocked  by  the  piercing  blast 
that  swept  through  the  unsheltered  domicile  of  an  impov- 
erished home.  Behold  now  that  dawning  light  beginning 
only  with  animal  instincts  and  physical  elements  to  aid 
its  development.  No  gentle  culture,  no  intellectual  atmo- 
sphere, no  chivalrous  and  traditional  refinement  to  melt 
and  mould  its  higher  sentiment  and  deeper  cravings.  All 
those  rules  by  which  great  men  are  systematically  trained, 
by  which  Cicero  and  Fenelon,  Fox  and  Burke,  and  our 
Webster,  and  even  Clay,  were  unfolded  and  encouraged 
to  advancing  maturity,  were  denied  him.  Behold  this 
granite  will  piercing  these  granite  obstacles,  through 
whose  chinks  gleam  after  gleam  of  helpful  light  is  stream- 
ing until  the  stone  crumbles,  a  broader  flood  descends, 
and  the  whole  man,  by  self-culture  and  self-discipline,  is 
lifted  above  the  flatboat,  above  the  rough  right  hand,  into 
the  higher  brain,  the  loftier  reach  of  legal  knowledge, 


112  EULOGY   ON 

political  power,  and  general  usefulness.  Slowly,  step  by 
step,  he  nears  the  far-off  prince,  whose  birth  is  so  hopeless- 
ly above  his  own.  The  one  becomes  a  needy  adventurer, 
an  exile ;  the  other  is  still  an  obscure  attorney,  but  a  man 
of  local  influence,  who  in  dignity  and  self-respect  would 
esteem  himself  equal  to  a  seedy  prince.  Again  they 
diverge  far  apart — convulsions  shake  the  chronic  storm- 
ridden  home  of  the  prince ;  the  outlaw  becomes  France's 
necessity.  The  Bourbon's  airy  diadem  vanishes — at  his 
touch  the  uncle's  imperial  brilliant  sparkles  on  the  dull 
brow  that  brooded  for  years  over  its  loss.  The  prince  is 
the  great  Emperor  of  France,  and  a  law  to  Europe's 
crowned  imbecility.  The  obscure  attorney  grows  apace. 
He  has  become  the  people's  representative.  Fortune, 
too,  begins  to  light  upon  his  lofty  patience.  •  By  times  the 
god  descends,  and  the  people  in  their  princely  capacity, 
passing  by  all  the  great  lights  who  thought  themselves 
born  and  reared,  and  who  talked  and  twisted  into  all 
shapes,  and  bent  their  ears  low  and  often  to  hear  the 
sweet  majestic  sound  that  should  call  them  to  the  Presi- 
dency, the  people  passing  them  all  by,  this  humble, 
honest,  direct,  genuine  man  is  dropped  into  that  chair 
where  "Washington  sat,  and  for  which  Webster  sighed. 
And  now  these  rulers  born  at  the  extremes  of  society,  in 
France  and  America,  face  each  other  as  peers.  The  one 
lifted  by  cunning,  by  nerve,  and  the  help  of  a  great  name, 
to  wear  through  blood  the  imperial  purple  of  a  fickle 
people.  The  other,  with  the  nobler  arts  of  a  noble  nature, 
by  wise  service,  .by  the  advocacy  of  liberal  sentiments,  by 
abstinence  from  all  sordid  devices,  comes  up  from  the 
depths  of  the  popular  class  to  sway  a  vast  empire,  the 
equal  of  kings,  with  power  and  resources  greater  than 
France  or  England.  Administering  in  peace  the  equal 
of  several  European  kingdoms,  and  chastising  witli  war  a 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  113 

territory  commensurate  with  half  a  continent.  It  may  be 
that  a  severe  criticism  would  exact  a  more  familiar  inter- 
course with  governmental  action,  a  deeper  and  more  com- 
prehensive reach  of  intellectual  culture  in  the  administra- 
tion of  important  political  interests;  but  when  we  con- 
sider the  sagacity  with  which  our  great  political  and 
military  struggle  has  been  conducted,  the  easy  grace  with 
which  intelligence  by  degrees  counteracted  inexperience, 

the  vast  amount  of  talent  summoned  to  its  assistance,  the 

* 

overflowing  resources  and  the  varied  implements  now 
awkwardly,  now  effectively,  adjusting  themselves  to  meet 
and  master  the  monster  wrong;  the  perfect  simplicity, 
integrity,  and  single-heartedness  with  which  our  lamented 
President's  intercourse  with  the  people  has  been  signal- 
ized ;  how  healthy  his  moral  and  personal  tone  has  acted 
on  the  contest;  with  what  perfect  confidence  his  faith 
inspired  our  confidence;  how  familiarly  and  fatherly  he 
has  corne  down  from  the  stilted  formality  of  austere  offi- 
ciality  to  take  our  troubles  by  the  hand ;  chucking  them 
under  the  chin,  and  telling  them  to  be  of  good  cheer ; 
mollifying  the  dangerous  with  appropriate  and  proper- 
turned  touches  of  the  humorous,  using  anecdotes  as  anti- 
dotes to  keep  human  nature  bland  and  cheerful  under  the 
constant  pressure  of  the  dreadful.  This  light-heartedness 
was  not  the  levity  of  a  frivolous  indifference  to  grave 
duties,  but  a  buoyancy  born  of  a  sanguine  and  genial 
enthusiasm,  confiding  in  the  success  of  the  true  and  the 
good,  and  looking  hopefully  and  gladly  to  pleasant  results, 
through  a  consciousness  of  meaning  and  acting  always  for 
the  interest  of  all. 

No  one  suffered  more  intensely  in  these  hours  of  doubt 

and  gloom,  when  a  triumph  of  the  foe,  on  a  battle-field  or 

at  the  ballot-box,  seemed  to  throw  a  momentary  despair 

over  the  results  of  the  contest.     Here  was  a  quiet  citizen,. 

8 


114  EULOGY   ON 

faithful  to  every  civil  emergency,  whose  pure  and  perse- 
vering life,  gifted  with  a  terse  and  peculiar  eloquence, 
disposed  him  to  advocate  his  political  doctrines  with 
quaint  and  emphatic  earnestness;  this  fresh  and  fearless 
man  is  suddenly  called  from  an  average  routine  of  useful 
and  responsible  duties,  to  administer  the  complex  ma- 
chinery of  the  highest  and  most  difficult  trust  of  modern 
imes.  Who  will  ever  forget  that  awful  fall  of  1860, 
\  hen,  amid  the  golden  beauty  of  autumnal  foliage,  and 
the  still  more  golden  splendor  of  national  peace  and 
national  power,  we  harvested  the  dark  November  ballot  ? 
It  fell,  the  last  calm  flow  of  a  nation's  will  through  blood- 
less channels.  It  fell,  that  ghastly  Presidential  suffrage, 
amid  the  secret  shudderings  of  a  foreboding,  yet  still 
faithful,  hopeful,  and  peaceful  Commonwealth.  Bad  men 
had  promised  to  break  up  a  good  government  if  this  good 
man  succeeded  to  it.  They  had  consented,  voluntarily,  to 
sit  down  and  play  the  game,  and  when  the  LINCOLN  ace 
turned  up,  attempted,  like  reckless  blacklegs,  to  overthrow 
the  table,  and  in  the  confusion  snatch  the  stakes  and  enjoy 
the  plunder. 

Whence  comes  the  philosophy  of  this  dark  suicide? 
Surely  first  in  egotism.  A  people  who  hold  another  race 
in  absolute  subjection  soon  exaggerate  their  self-impor- 
tance and  believe  all  races  their  inferior.  Because  they 
could  flog  one  people  at  will,  they  thought  they  had  only 
to  tie  the  North  up  by  the  heels  and  bring  it  to  any  terms. 
Northern  Democrats  could  have  no  feeling  of  patriotism 
for  their  section  when  such  august  allies  demanded  sub- 
mission. The  next  cause  of  their  ruin  was  ignorance. 
Where  was  their  arithmetic  when  South  Carolina  seceded  ? 
Who  told  them  that  one  was  greater  than  two ;  that  the 
vast  resources  of  the  North  would  tremble  before  a  Pal- 
metto leaf;  that  the  mud-sills  could  drive  a  bargain,  but 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  115 

not  an  enemy;  the  shop-keeping  crew  might  charge 
prices,  but  not  batteries  or  bayonets  ?  Had  they  forgotten 
or  never  read  Revolutionary  History  ?  Was  not  the  deep 
love  of  country  drunk  in  with  our  mother's  milk,  now 
tenaciously  upheld  with  the  red  flow  of  our  ready  blood  ? 
Would  the  children  of  Warren  and  Putnam,  of  Schuyler 
and  Greene,  see  this  heritage  swept  away  by  the  Davises 
and  Lees  of  a  more  dastardly  age  ? 

Let  those  who  are  so  proud  of  a  separate  South  remem- 
ber who  gave  them  a  South  to  be  proud  of.  Who,  when 
Marion  was  vanquished  and  Sumter  and  Lincoln  swept 
from  the  contest,  sent  down  our  Greene  and  our  hardy 
Northern  help  to  lift  their  chain  and  restore  their  freedom 
and  their  fellowship  with  States,  never  for  an  hour  know- 
ing a  country  or  a  home  distinct  from  the  stronger  and 
more  protecting  North.  Thus  they  drifted  on  this  frantic 
fraternity,  with  no  light  but  phrensy  and  whiskey,  to  their 
dark  doom. 

Public  opinion  was  confused  and  bewildered  by  the 
senseless  howl  of  State  Sovereignty  from  this  State  bought 
for  $17,500  by  a  company  of  English  merchants.  Look 
at  the  grievances  alleged  by  the  declaration  of  the  South 
Carolina  Convention.  The  North  had  all  the  ships  and 
commerce,  that  was  the  crime  of  competition  committed 
by  their  hard  hands  and  honest  labor.  The  North  forced 
upon  them  a  high  tariff,  and  yet  it  was  this  South  Caro- 
lina that  insisted  on  a  high  tariff  on  cotton  when  we  im- 
ported instead  of  exported  that  belligerent  little  fabric. 
The  South  had  to  help  pay  the  $200,000  a  year  for  fishing 
bounties  to  our  seamen  who  sailed  with  their  cotton  and 
defended  it  on  the  high  seas,  while  the  North  was  paying 
their  greater  share  of  the  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  it 
cost  to  carry  the  Southern  mail,  above  its  earnings.  The 
North,  in  one  or  two  States,  refused  to  execute  the  Fugi- 


116  EULOGY   ON 

tive  Slave  Law,  that  is  those  States  claimed  the  South 
Carolina  privilege  of  nullifying  an  obnoxious  Federal  law, 
which  the  Federal  Government  faithfully  fulfilled.  These 
were  the  senseless  arguments  why  the  government  of  our 
fathers  should  be  destroyed,  why  the  whole  fabric  of 
organized  society  should  be  startled  and  loosened,  why 
the  nation  should  shake  with  the  tramp  of  hostile  brothers, 
why  graves  should  be  opened,  homes  desolated,  and 
hearts  broken.  Why  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  an  angel  in 
feeling,  and  a  Democrat  in  action,  should  be  called  by  the 
Southern  press  and  the  Southern  rulers  a  tyrant,  a  baboon, 
an  ape,  a  lord  over  hyenas,  and  the  sure  prey  of  those 
giant  reformers  who  were  so  skilfully  and  surely  tracking 
him  to  his  lair. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  swore 
to  stand  by  the  charter.  He  walked  from  the  ballot-box 
to  the  inaugural  over  broken  oaths  and  dissolving  States. 
Under  a  Scotch  cap  he  drifted  by  a  threatening  mob  to 
find  himself  in  the  presence  of  a  confounded  people  and  a 
paralyzed  government.  Every  aid  was  needed  and  no 
one  could  be  trusted.  Like  the  air,  secession  had  insin- 
uate'd  itself  into  every  crevice  of  public  employment. 
Army  and  navy  officers  were  resigning,  and  carrying  off 
both  experience  and  material.  Clerks  entrusted  with  the 
most  important  State  secrets  were  sending  them  to  the 
enemy,  and  if  displaced  the  new  might  be  equally  as  cul- 
pable. All  enterprises  were  at  a  stand-still.  Blood 
seemed  the  only  business  likely  to  thrive.  Every  one 
looked  to  him  who  had  been  accused  of  all  this  to  remedy 
all  this.  There  he  stood,  calm  and  anxious.  A  quiet 
man,  who  had  come  to  perform  a  plain  task,  to  execute 
laws  which  no  one  before  had  ever  questioned,  to  satisfy 
the  voters  who  had  sent  him  there,  and  then  leave  it  all 
as  sacredly  and  securely  safe,  the  rights  of  each  and  everv 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  117 

section  as  lie  found  them.  Yet  the  storm  howled  on 
around  this  novice  in  statesmanship  and  in  crime.  More 
inroads  on  the  holy  temple,  more  whirling  away  of  States, 
more  faithful  citizens  renouncing  their  fidelity  to  a  com- 
mon mother.  The  contest  deepens.  Brothers  are  sharp- 
ening for  their  brother's  blood.  Statesmen  who  could 
easily  solve  ordinary  questions,  shake  their  heads  at  the 
shaking  fabric.  Public  sentiment  is  divided  as  to  the 
powers  of  a  government  founded  on  sentiment.  Can  you 
punish  the  author  and  the  owner  for  what  they  do  with 
their  own  ?  Has  not  a  Sovereign  a  right  to  its  sovereign- 

o  o  o 

ty?  Thus  was  a  nation  bewildered,  staggered,  lowered, 
and  drunk  with  the  sophistry  of  Southern  phrases,  until 
one  day  a  lunatic  in  Montgomery  telegraphed  to  another 
demented  to  fire  on  that  sacred  bunting.  The  ball  comes 
on  and  knocks  the  film  from  our  drowsy  Northern  eyes, 
lifts  the  clouds  that  had  obscured  our  self-defence,  and  we 
rise  to  the  height  of  both  our  danger  and  our  duty.  Be- 
fore Sumter  all  was  party.  Not  the  nation,  but  how 
should  the  Republicans  act.  "Would  concessions  be  con- 
sistent with  the  rights  and  results  of  a  party  victory? 
How  dare  defeat  bully  us  ?  Sumter's  ball  hurled  ABRA- 
HAM LINCOLN  from  the  Chicago  Platform  to  the  Spring- 
field Armory.  It  made  every  American  citizen  an  office- 
seeker,  asking  a  place  for  his  country  among  the  nations  ; 
asking  for  his  own  plundered  citizenship  ;  every  man  was 
a  government  contractor  that  day,  pleading  for  the  Great 
Contract.  Now  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  is  himself;  now  he 
puts  on  his  official  pea-jacket,  goes  on  the  national  deck, 
and  grasps  the  helm  with  that  dauntless  vigor  which  God 
and  his  Western  life  had  given  him.  This  bullet  of  Sum- 
ter relieves  him  of  all  that  civil  diffidence  to  which  an 
unpractised  prominence  is  prone  and  which  even  paralyzed 
the  experience  that  preceded  him.  With  more  necessity 


118  EULOGY  ON 

of  blood  comes  more  desertion  of  States.  All  wlio  stand 
by  the  stability  of  national  power  need  this  crumbling 
away  of  the  yielding,  unreliable  material  which  might 
impede  or  fraternize  indifferently  with  the  supreme 
exigency ;  and  now  the  question  is,  Who  shall  awake  and 
lead  the  military  element.  All  our  hope  of  glory  and 
soldierly  experience  is  centered  in  one  tottering,  fading, 
faithful  giant.  Scott  of  the  past  must  be  succeeded  by 
some  younger  Scott.  "With  a  childish  enthusiasm  the 
people  adopt  and  exult  over  an  unknown  youth,  modest 
and  cultivated.  With  the  generosity  of  unaccustomed 
war  they  gorge  this  untried  hero  with  powder,  and  ball, 
and  men,  and  confidence,  and  every  implement  of  success, 
that  could  make  merit  succeed  and  the  lack  of  it  snarl 
and  fall. 

Through  all  that  period  of  criminal  caution  and  in- 
competency,  how  nobly  the  faithful  President  stood  by 
him  whom  an  intelligent  impatience  was  demanding  to 
be  removed.  How  anxiously  his  kind  nature  sustained 
this  wooden  hero,  and  urged  him  from  splendid  retreat  to 
splendid  retreat,  to  prove  himself  at  last  all  this  hopeful 
people  hoped  of  him.  With  what  eager  pertinacity  his 
disappointment  turned  from  chief  to  chief,  searching 
under  eveiy  repulse  for  the  true  leader ;  poring  over  that 
bloody  volume  of  the  War  Directory  to  find  the  name  and 
residence  of  him  who  was  to  lead  this  nation  to  victory 
and  unity. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  our  greatest 
genera]  was  our  general  greatness.  Alternately  checked 
and  chasing  the  elastic  foe  on  innumerable  battle-fields, 
yet  still  advancing,  at  last  from  fire-vomiting  impediments, 
wide-spread  toil  and  slaughter,  are  evolved  in  smoke  and 
blood,  as  the  genii  by  the  sea  rose  out  of  storm  and  mist, 
so  rose  our  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Farragut,  to  lead  back 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  119 

through  fields  of  ceaseless  triumph  the  reeling,  staggering 
spirit  of  Union  and  Liberty.  These  are  the  names  that 
make  our  cause  strong,  and  would  make  any  cause  dan- 
gerous. "We  know,  too,  whose  clear  eye  first  discovered 
their  merits,  and  whose  hand  signed  the  instruments  that 
sent  them  forth  to  hew  away  all  obstacles  that  stopped 
Epfanbua  unwris  path  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf. 

This  unknown  man,  a  stranger  to  office  and  statesman- 
ship, to  public  praise  or  public  blame,  without  great 
genius  or  great  experience,  or  great  fame,  acquired  or 
traditional,  to  gild  error  or  confirm  merit ;  with  a  name 
to  make,  an  oath  to  keep,  a  people  to  save,  a  crime  to 
punish,  the  volcano  heaving  under  his  feet,  the  oath  warn- 
ing him  over  his  headj  the  dagger  at  his  breast,  an  empire 
in  his  hands,  backed  by  a  divided  North,  defied  by  a 
seemingly  united  South,  his  obscure  and  spotless  name  at 
once  the  synonym  of  England's  sneer  and  Richmond's 
curse ;  with  only  a  pure  heart,  a  clear  eye  and  a  steady 
hand  to  lay  without  flinching  on  the  most  dangerous 
crisis,  the  most  doubtful  issues,  the  most  perplexing 
duties,  the  most  daring  and  defiant,  the  most  well-bred,, 
well-considered,  comprehensive,  cultivated,  hell-engen- 
dered plot  that  ever  dashed  its  bloody  hand  and  icy  heart 
against  the  elements  of  law  and  order.  He  found  himself 
heir  to  a  statesmanship  confused,  shuffling  and  pusillan- 
imous, occupied  only  with  the  question  as  to  how  we 
should  permit  our  institutions  to  be  murdered  most  grace- 
fully, and  he  left  its  public  policy  candid,  earnest,  self- 
sustaining,  engaged  only  with  the  question,  how  the 
attempted  murderers  could  be  treated  most  mercifully. 
He  found  American  nationality  suddenly  confronting  him 
as  a  disgraceful  doubt;  he  parted  with  it  a  terribly- 
respected  fact.  He  found  the  government  a  dissolving 
giant,  dying  of  an  old  cancer  that  had  baffled  the  best 


120  EULOGY   ON 

physicians ;  lie  lived  to  cut  out  tlie  poison  with  his  sword, 
and  left  his  well-knit,  well-mannered,  vigorous,  compact 
patient  a  perpetual  and  healthful  mourner  at  his  grave. 
Sorely  in  need  of  force  to  meet  the  arming  crime,  he  found 
our  little  navy  had  been  sent  yachting  in  the  Indian  and 
Pacific  Seas,  that  treason  might  cruise  more  seriously 
along  the  streams  of  our  progress.  He  lived  to  fill  the 
world  with  our  swarming  ships,  original  in  design,  invin- 
cible in  defence,  terrible  in  destruction,  able  to  defend  one 
continent  and  defy  another.  He  came  into  possession  of 
15,000  regular  soldiers,  scattered  over  as  many  miles,  and 
1,000,000  of  men  by  him  equipped  reversed  their  arms  on 
his  funeral  march.  He  found  the  people  quailing  under 
a  debt  of  eighty  millions  and  fearing  the  weight  of  it  must 
bar  the  door  to  national  salvation ;  he  left  them  with  their 
country  redeemed,  their  resources  more  developed,  their 
trade  increased,  and  a  mountain  of  three  thousand  millions 
of  debt  scaled  at  all  points  for  investment,  without  official- 
ly calling  on  a  single  foreign  dollar  to  help  us  purchase 
our  domestic  safety.  He  found  the  public  feeling  and  the 
sense  of  citizenship  demoralized,  the  tone  of  political  re- 
sponsibility lowered,  the  suffrage  a  mere  vehicle  for  par- 
tisan aggrandizement,  the  love  of  country  at  the  mercy 
of  a  State  Rights  dogma,  a  party  tie,  a  demagogue's 
breath  ;  national  obligations  confused  and  evaporating  in 
a  narrow  local  selfishness  that  would  part  with  an  empire 
to  save  a  hobby,  that  would  not  give  up  a  prejudice  to 
keep  up  the  wisest  and  most  beneficent  systems  ever 
sworn  to  by  man.  He  lived  to  see  the  sun  dawn  on  a 
united  people  purified  by  suffering ;  their  sense  of  danger 
elevating  their  sense  of  duty  and  unity.  By  personal 
example  of  earnest,  disinterested  public  service,  by  pa- 
tience, courage  and  faith  in  all  well-doing,  more  than  by 
sermon,  homily  or  proclamation,  did  this  good  chieftain 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  121 

mould  the  better  life  of  tlie  nation  and  preserve  it  from 
false  prophets  and  false  issues ;  keeping  it  in  the  steady 
line  of  calm  and  inflexible  determination  to  pass  through 
its  perils,  to  accept  its  sacrifices,  to  live  up  to  its  duties, 
and  so  save  all  that  heroism  had  acquired  and  freedom 
and  virtue  sanctified.  He  accomplished  all  this,  not 
without,  perhaps,  many  errors  of  inexperience  and  defects 
of  judgment ;  not  without  sometimes  ringing  the  little  bell 
a  little  too  often,  or  drawing  the  bolt  a  little  too  soon ; 
sometimes  overworking  the  war  power,  in  which  fewer 
mistakes  could  hardly  have  been  made  with  so  many 
crimes  to  lock  up  and  use  up ;  the  people  preferring  the 
occasional  despotism  of  mistakes  to  the  permanent  despot- 
ism of  crimes — preferring  an  incompetent  man,  sometimes 
inadvertently  kept  in  office,  to  an  absurd  cause  enthroned 
forever.  He  passed  through  this  storm  of  war,  this  criti- 
cism of  civil  duty,  these  murmurs  of  complaint,  these 
periods  of  panic,  to  victory  and  immortality,  not  without 
much  help  from  heaven,  many  friends,  brilliant  aids  and 
immense  resources.  He  saw  a  foreign  oligarchy  envious 
and  malignant,  banded  to  write  down  and  wear  down  the 
purest  and  most  powerful  type  of  modern  republicanism  ; 
he  saw  a  home  opposition,  reckless,  wanton  and  depraved, 
showering  his  most  righteous  acts  with  defiant  slanders 
and  cruel  perversions  in  a  crisis  entitled  to  magnanimity 
and  a  generous  forbearance ;  he  saw  this  dastardly  tribe 
brought  down,  humbled  and  helpless,  before  the  simple 
efforts  of  persistent  and  well-directed  achievements ;  he 
saw  the  South  that  had  exhausted  upon  him  every  epithet 
and  every  feeling  of  hatred  and  calumny,  who  had  taught 
their  slaves  to  ridicule  him,  their  children  to  loathe  and 
lisp  the  alphabet  of  never-ending  scorn  and  bitterness,  he 
saw  this  South  staggering  and  dying  under  his  incessant 
blows,  lifting  its  fainting  head  to  deny  and  to  regret  a 


122  EULOGY   ON 

death  which  might  uncomfortably  precipitate  them  from 
the  chastisement  of  principle  to  the  chastisement  of 
revenge. 

To  all  these  merits  of  energy,  patience,  probity,  saga- 
city, eloquence,  and  aptitude  for  organization  and  execu- 
tion, which  distinguished  the  great  emancipator,  must 
now  be  added  the  melancholy  merit  of  national  martyr- 
dom. As  in  his  life  his  achievements  render  his  rule  the 
most  important  and  conspicuous  Presidential  career  since 
Washington's,  so  in  his  death  he  stands  alone  as  the  first 
public  character  violently  swept  from  the  sphere  of  its 
usefulness ;  a  great  guardian  stricken  down  from  the  side 
of  a  great  truth,  just  as  it  was  passing  from  the  perils  of  war 
to  the  exigencies  of  peace.  Will  not  emancipation — this 
infant,  born  in  the  hail  of  blood-blinding  war — will  it  not 
miss  that  relaxed  hand,  that  stilled  voice,  as  the  orphan 
totters  through  opposing  ranks  to  rank  and  power? 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  fell  on  the  very  day  the  old  flag 
came  down  on  Sumter ;  when  we  stood  on  that  ruin 
which  was  yet  more  the  ruin  of  the  South ;  but  not  till 
his  soul  had  gone  up  with  the  flag ;  not  until  the  perti- 
nacity of  the  North  had  waved  a  mended  principle  over  a 
broken  fortress.  And  now,  with  this  loved  one  vanished, 
this  Union  saved,  this  sad  Southern  people  prostrate,  this 
peace  perched  on  every  surly  battlement  of  rebellion,  will 
the  South  pass  thus  sullenly  from  the  eminence  of  defi- 
ance to  the  extreme  of  apathy  and  indifference  ? 

Why  is  it  that  in  all  these  conquered  districts  we  hear 
so  much  of  the  people's  love  of  the  Union,  and  no  attempt 
to  work  up  this  Union  feeling  into  State  organization  and 
national  co-operation?  All  ready  to  cringe  to  power,  to 
forswear  the  past,  ready  to  take  rations,  take  oaths,  take 
office,  take  anything  to  save  property  and  avoid  the 
last  ditch.  Where  is  all  that  manhood  which  braved 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  123 

death,  defied  the  world,  and  staked  everything  for  Jeff? 
That  rebelled,  robbed,  lied,  slaughtered,  hung,  and  burned 
for  the  right  to  break  up,  and  will  do  nothing  to  make  up, 
that  involves  reason,  thought,  loyalty,  and  earnest  political 
brotherhood  ? 

Come  back,  oh  deluded  and  defeated  South.  Come 
back  in  feeling  as  you  are  already  back  by  compulsion. 
Those  who  won  you  with  their  superior  sword  would  hold 
you  by  the  equal  charter.  For  blows  and  curses,  for  hard 
names  and  light  fingers,  for  ruin  diverted  from  abroad 
and  baffled  at  home,  for  all  but  the  leadership  in  your 
hellish  crimes,  we  offer  just  laws,  equal  rights,  and  a 
common  share  in  that  loving  government  only  made  more 
immortal  by  warding  off  the  death-blow  you  would  have 
dealt  it. 

With  all  the  desolation  of  your  fields  and  homes,  you 
have  lost  nothing  permanently  but  a  traitorous  crew  and 
a  poisonous  creed ;  nothing  which  industry  will  not  repair 
and  patriotism  secure.  Remember,  slavery  was  never  in 
danger  until  you  lost  your  senses ;  remember,  too,  that  it 
never  can  be  restored  until  we  lose  ours.  The  same  talent 
and  energy  employed  in  the  arts  of  peace  that  you  have 
exhibited  in  war,  the  same  toil  with  your  white  hands,  the 
same  endurance  of  fatigue  and  hardships,  of  hunger  and 
danger,  through  desperate  encounters  and  dreary  marches 
which  made  you  the  slaves  of  slavery,  by  peaceful  free 
labor,  will  restore  you  to  a  nobler  and  more  abundant 
prosperity  than  was  ever  wrung  from  the  toil  of  others. 
You  can  hire  the  negro's  freedom  cheaper  than  you  can 
buy  his  servitude.  The  interest  on  his  slave  value  will 
almost  pay  his  free  wages,  while  his  own  interest  in  the 
rights  of  men  will  increase  the  energy  with  which  he 
develops  your  wealth.  Free  labor  alone  has  conquered 
you.  It  invites  emigration,  it  develops  and  then  accumu- 


124  EULOGY   ON 

lates  resources  too  -vastly  and  too  quickly  for  slavery  to 
compete  with.  The  negro,  as  slave,  failed  to  keep  oif  war 
or  to  keep  up  war  for  your  advantage;  now  try  if  the 
negro  as  freeman,  may  not  prolong  peace  and  so  insure 
harmony,  unity,  and  a  less  sensitive  form  of  progress  and 
prosperity.  Will  you  forget  that  you  must  arouse,  orga- 
nize, and  recover  your  lost  civil  status?  As  war  has 
thrashed  out  of  you  the  beaten  and  demolished  theory 
that  a  State  may  defy  and  destroy  a  nation,  why  not 
heartily  and  permanently  shape  the  State  law  and  con- 
form every  local  obligation  and  every  moral  and  political 
sentiment  to  the  spirit  of  national  duty ;  co-operating  in 
cheerful  concurrence  with  the  great  Federal  amendment, 
so  that  never  directly  or  by  implication  shall  any  clause 
be  so  doubtful  in  the  constitution  as  to  tempt  the  traitor 
or  wean  the  patriot  from  fealty  to  the  supreme  law  of  the 
Union,  and  thus  divert  misery  and  ruin  from  yourself  and 
your  children  to  the  latest  generation  ? 

Will  not  this  Southern  people  call  conventions,  appoint 
elections,  send  delegates  back  voluntarily  to  that  Congress 
they  voluntarily  spurned,  and  thus,  in  the  good  American 
way,  by  argument,  by  peaceful  investigation  and  hopeful 
reference  to  representative  and  judicial  adjudication,  sub- 
mit their  rights  and  wants,  under  a  returning  submission 
and  sense  of  duty,  to  those  who  in  their  better  days  de- 
cided wisely  and  well  for  us  all ;  or  else,  in  stubbornness 
and  anger,  remain  under  this  military  post-garrison  form 
of  pupilage,  or  go  forth  wanderers  to  people  some  more 
Southern  solitude ;  or,  like  the  Arab  or  the  gipsy,  intrude 
on  luckier  races  branded  with  the  marks  of  unrespected 
martyrdom?  Laws,  habits,  language,  feeling,  kindred, 
make  us  one  people.  Love  and  trade,  as  well  as  moun- 
tains and  rivers,  matrimony,  as  well  as  geography,  have 
made  us  one  people.  You  cannot  form  two  nations  of  a 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  125 

community  with  a  Yankee  aunt  and  grandmother  hanging 
up  reverently  in  every  Southern  parlor,  with  a  Southern 
sister  or  grandfather  piously  packed  away  in  every  North- 
ern home.  Is  the  Southern  pride  wounded  by  defeat? 
The  very  exertions  that  have  been  vanquished  have  made 
them  famous,  and  by  the  industry  of  the  effort  prepared 
them  for  that  free  labor  which  they  could  not  avoid.  If 
they  have  lost  their  slaves  they  have  gained  themselves — 
gained  knowledge,  gained  self-reliance,  and  a  surer  and 
quicker  development.  Admitting  that  the  whole  value 
of  the  slaves  was  one  thousand  millions  of  dollais,  which 
they  have  lost,  yet  it  is  not  one-half  the  sum  the  North 
has  had  to  pay  to  maintain  the  Government.  Are  they 
desolate  and  impoverished  ?  Not  more  so  than  any  des- 
perate speculator  who  embarks  his  all  in  some  such  wild- 
cat bank  and  fails.  If  they  will  invest  in  damnation,  they 
must  expect  their  profits  to  be  hell.  If  the  negro  proves 
himself  worthy  of  free  labor  it  will  ensure  to  Southern 
ambition  more  political  power  by  enlarging  the  Southern 
constituency ;  it  will  make  Southern  lands  more  valuable 
by  increasing  their  productiveness ;  and  with  the  generous 
tender  of  Northern  capital,  this  Southern  community  must 
rapidly  recover  from  its  depletion. 

And  now,  soldiers !  sons  of  our  North !  saviours  of  our 
nation !  your  days  of  danger  and  strife  are  drawing  to  a 
close.  No  heroes  of  the  world  tread  more  enviable 
heights  of  fame.  Your  bayonets  have  been  gleaming 
spires  over  that  holy  church  of  liberty  in  which  your 
fathers  and  your  brothers  worshipped. 

Through  all  your  marches  you  have  never  forgotten 
that  you  were  citizens  as  well  as  soldiers ;  that  you  were 
moving  at  no  unrighteous  conqueror's  beck.  Amid  all 
the  storm  of  battle,  on  picket,  through  the  drill,  or  by  the 
camp  fire,  the  spirit  of  your  Government  was  simply  call- 


126  EULOGY  ON  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ing  upon  you  to  perfect  your  own  citizenship.  No  can- 
non could  drown  that  voice — no  raid  capture  the  resolu- 
tion to  obey  it. 

The  glory  of  your  deeds  will  remain  with  you  through 
life;  it  will  influence  your  character  and  insure  you 
respect.  The  sight  of  that  old  flag,  when  it  flits  between 
your  cares  and  your  dreams  and  waves  over  some  civil 
duty  abandoned  on  holidays  or  festivals,  you  will  think 
how  you  followed  it  as  it  streamed  on  fields  of  fire.  How 
the  nation  reeled  or  righted  as  you  shrunk  from  or  breast- 
ed the  guilty  lines  that  confronted  it. 

And  as  your  eyes  gleam  with  exultation  over  the  dan- 
gers you  escaped,  and  the  rights  you  snatched  from  the 
traitors'  grasp,  you  will  mingle  your  glad  refrain  with 
loved  memories  of  that  great  and  good  chief  who  first 
called  you  into  service,  equipped  you  for  battle,  and  with 
a  father's  care  and  a  monarch's  power,  followed  you  with 
cheering  words  through  every  contest,  until  the  bullet 
that  spared  you  laid  low  his  life,  fresh  from  the  freedom 
of  one  race  and  the  safety  of  another. 


AJDDHESS 


ON  THE 


DEATH  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

WRITTEN  FOE  THE  SOLDIER'S  FRIEND. 


SOLDIEKS  !  You  who  have  mowed  down  so  many  lives, 
to  whom  graves  are  as  familiar  as  wounds,  there  is  one 
death  that  must  move  you.  The  lips  that  have  so  often 
plead  for  your  comfort  and  your  glory  cannot  moulder 
without  a  tear  or  a  memory  for  such  a  man. 

EDWAKD  EVEEETT  is  DEAD  !  What  a  startling  announce- 
ment to  a  people  who,  for  so  many  years,  have  shaped 
their  ears  and  hopes  to  his  graceful  teachings.  In  a  dark 
hour,  when  the  precious  metals  are  so  high  and  scarce,  the 
loss  of  that  silver  tongue  is  indeed  a  calamity.  Where 
shall  the  anniversary  oration,  the  holiday  festival,  the 
complimentary  banquet,  the  political  crisis,  and,  above 
all,  this  righteous  conflict,  look  for  so  finished,  so  experi- 
enced, and  so  animated  a  mouth-piece  ? 

Edward  Everett  was  not  an  orator  in  its  highest  sense. 
I  will  not  say  he  was  not  profound.  It  is  not  the  business 
of  oratory  to  be  profound  in  anything  but  feeling,  nor  to 
be  original  in  anything  but  statement  and  illustration. 
Orators  are  the  medium  through  which  the  thoughts  of 


128  ADDRESS   ON   THE 

great  men  and  the  duty  of  great  achievements  are  ex- 
plained and  conveyed  to  the  masses.  Their  business  is  to 
inspire  men  with  the  love  of  country,  of  virtue,  of  justice, 
and  of  beauty  in  thought  and  action,  and  this  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  employing  the  clearest,  simplest,  and 
most  intelligible  forms  of  thought  and  expression .  Edward 
Everett  was  not  what  we  delight  to  call  a  born  orator, 
overflowing  and  spontaneous,  like  Patrick  Henry  or  Henry 
Clay.  He  had  not  the  bold  and  massive  amplitude  of 
"Webster,  nor  the  rich  and  vigorous  comprehensiveness  of 
Burke;  neither  could  he  compare  with  Choate  in  real 
earnestness,  in  familiar  candor  of  manner,  and  that  gush- 
ing sympathetic  sweetness  of  style,  on  whose  golden  stream 
swam  the  whole  structure  of  thought,  learning,  taste, 
fancy,  and  logic,  which  the  heart  or  brain  of  the  orator 
could  conceive  or  convey.  Everett  never  for  a  moment 
forgot  Everett.  All  that  he  said  or  wrote  was  finished, 
scholarly,  intelligent,  and  informing.  It  added  to  our 
knowledge  and  corrected  our  taste,  but  neither  stirred  our 
blood  nor  won  our  heart.  Yet  he  was  artist  enough  to 
use  in  his  orations  the  materials  that  inspire  sympathy, 
and  he  no  doubt  was  man  enough  to  feel  them ;  but  he 
lacked  that  indescribable  something  which  succeeds  in 
conveying  to  others  the  highest  efforts  of  self-forgetting, 
soul-inspiring  power. 

His  oration  on  the  inauguration  of  the  Dudley  Observa- 
tory is  a  serene  master-piece  of  starry  oratory.  The  sub- 
ject was  peculiarly  adapted  to  his  character  of  eloquence. 
It  had  no  immediate  connection  with  the  passions  or  per- 
sons of  the  hour.  It  required  some  knowledge  of  astron- 
omy, fine  moral  sensibility,  an  appreciation  of  abstract 
beauty,  and  an  artistic  power  of  grouping  the  grand  and 
the  distant  into  forms  which  mysteriously  link  them  to 
our  pursuit  of  happiness  and  duty.  The  celebrated  oration 


DEATH   OF   EDWARD   EVERETT.  129 

on  "Washington,  delivered  in  aid  of  the  purchase  of  the 
home  of  Washington,  received,  and  indeed  deserved,  all 
the  merit  awarded  to  it. 

No  orator  in  our  age,  or  any  other  age,  ever  produced 
such  substantial  pecuniary  results  for  the  benefit  of  so 
endearing  and  sacred  a  cause.  Yet,  as  a  great  mental 
effort,  it  cannot  rank  with  the  ablest  productions  of  the 
times,  nor  even  is  it  equal  to  some  of  his  own  less  ambi- 
tious and  less  carefully  prepared  addresses. 

At  Gettysburg  there  came  forth  the  whole  soul  of  the 
orator  and  the  man,  to  bind  up,  in  undying  words,  the 
deathless  deeds  of  the  martyred  band  that  lay  crumbling 
beneath  his  inspiration.  And  is  there  a  field  whose  lan- 
guage could  paint  achievement  more  vividly  than  on  the 
very  spot  of  its  performance  ?  His  feet  were  soaking  in 
the  still  undried  blood  of  the  battle  ;  his  lungs  were  inhal- 
ing the  yet  lingering  smoke  of  a  thousand  cannon ;  his 
eyes  gazed  on  the  trodden  grass,  the  ruined  harvest, 
the  crushed  homes,  the  unburied  dead,  the  ghastly,  wide- 
spread desolation,  invoked  by  the  murderous  rush  of  those 
angry  billows  of  men  that  flowed  and  surged  and  bore 
each  other  down,  that  they  might  save  or  blast  the  hopes 
of  republican  liberty.  And  there  was  that  calm  man  of 
speech,  succeeding  that  angry  clash  of  arms,  the  deserted 
implements  of  destruction  all  around  him,  and  out  of  the 
havoc  of  their  expired  ferocity  comes  the  sweet  soft  tone 
of  a  power  and  a  patriotism  as  strong  and  determined,  and 
yet  more  peaceful  and  beautiful  in  its  teachings  than  the 
glorious  blaze  of  vanished  but  conquering  heroes. 

Yet  Mr.  Everett  will  stand  higher  with  posterity  as  a 
publicist  than  an  orator.  During  his  long  participation  in 
political  life,  as  Senator  in  Congress,  Secretary  of  State, 
and  Minister  to  England,  his  numerous  state  papers  and 
diplomatic  correspondence  were  invaluable  contributions 
9 


130  ADDRESS   ON    THE 

to  the  political  knowledge  of  the  country.  Few  statesmen 
have  exhibited  more  skilful  aptitude  for  diplomacy,  or  a 
more  accurate  knowledge  and  nicer  skill  in  dealing  with  the 
questions  affecting  our  domestic  and  international  relations. 
We  never  read  an  address  or  a  communication  from  Mr. 
Everett,  on  whatever  may  be  the  most  engrossing  subject 
of  public  interest  at  the  moment,  that  we  do  not  gain  some 
new  fact,  or  argument,  some  new  light,  to  guide  and 
determine  our  judgment,  after  other  leading  men  have 
exhausted  their  knowledge  of  it.  His  Fourth  of  July 
Address,  in  1861,  on  the  causes  and  consequences  of  the 
rebellion,  contains  more  facts  in  relation  to  that  event,  and 
more  arguments  against  it,  than  all  the  rest  of  the  public 
speeches  on  the  same  subject  since. 

Mr.  Everett's  pride  was  in  his  oratory,  but  his  real 
strength  lay  in  his  true  knowledge  of  public  affairs ;  in  his 
faculty  for  industriously  collating  and  impartially  com- 
menting on  political  questions. 

His  was  not  a  character  of  commanding,  initiative 
energy,  that,  fortified  by  will,  and  impelled  by  bold  moral 
passions,  founds  sects,  leads  parties,  and  revolutionizes 
creeds.  It  was  a  balancing,  delicate,  yet  interested  and 
enterprising  nature,  that  pursues  and  perceives,  but  satis- 
fies itself  rather  with  commenting  than  controlling,  and  so 
dies  without  a  follower  or  an  enemy ;  sure  of  some  imitators 
and  millions  of  admirers.  His  high  American  tone,  his 
unswerving  integrity  of  conduct  and  purpose,  his  intense 
national  feeling  and  service,  insure,  while  others  take  the 
chair,  he  will  take  the  niche.  No  general  in  the  field  has 
worked  harder  for  the  Union  than  the  peaceful,  unarmed 
EDWARD  EVERETT.  He  filled  armies  if  he  did  not  com- 
mand them.  His  tongue  has  been  the  best  tax-gatherer 
in  the  nation.  First  it  raised  thousands  to  purchase  the 
tomb  of  Washington  ;  then,  chanting  a  sterner  and  loftier 


DEATH    OF   EDWAKD   EVERETT.  131 

strain,  it  raised  thousands  more  to  save  the  work  of  Wash- 
ington. 

This  is  the  man,  the  man  of  culture  and  caution,  too 
wise  to  love  error  and  too  timid  to  reform  it,  whom  the 
temporizers  of  1860  tied  to  their  Yice-Presidential  ticket. 
A  ticket  that  went  to  battle  with  an  empty  musket ;  that 
in  a  great  moral  and  political  crisis  had  no  creed,  a  ticket 
which  clung  to  the  past  because  it  was  experience ;  shrunk 
from  the  future,  because  it  was  experiment ;  and  paralyzed 
the  present  by  vivifying  it  with  neither  the  dream  of  the 
philanthropist  nor  the  daring  advances  of  the  slaveholder. 
It  was  a  pitiable  sight  to  see  this  weak-kneed  coterie  at- 
tempting to  attain  power  by  dodging  the  radical  storm 
that  raged  between  the  White  House  and  the  ballot-box. 

Yet  the  banner  of  equivocation  waved  over  a  wider 
field  than  the  genuine  issues.  While  the  Lincoln  vote 
was  stopped  at  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Mississippi ;  while 
the  Breckenridge  ticket  swooned  and  froze  under  the  cold 
blasts  of  the  Republican  North,  the  name  of  Bell  and 
Everett,  warranted  to  keep  in  any  climate,  rustling  alike 
over  prairie,  cane-brake  and  cotton-plant,  fanned  the  heated 
South  with  the  motto  of  conservatism  into  a  delusive 
temporary  equanimity.  The  civil  contest  concluded,  the 
conservative  wrong  is  swept  away  by  the  radical  right. 
The  Southern  votes  for  Everett  of  peace  harden  into 
steel  against  the  Everett  of  war.  The  Scholar  Politician, 
trembling  and  trimming  rather  to  save  a  people  than  yield 
a  place,  buries  his  compromises  in  the  masonry  of  Fort 
Sumter.  Out  of  that  smoke  by  the  sea  the  giant  rises ; 
stretching  his  sceptre  of  speech  over  the  vast  commotion, 
he  calls  millions  to  redeem  the  threatened  nation.  Like 
white  sugar,  his  oratory  needed  blood  to  turn  it.  For  four 
years  that  voice  has  been  loyal,  radical  and  defiant,  the 
trimmer  swallowed  up  in  the  exterminator,  the  iron  coming 


132  ADDRESS  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

to  the  rescue  of  the  silver  in  his  nature.  Edward  Everett 
was  not  permitted  to  die  until  all  doubts  of  his  greatness 
were  removed.  He  who  had  spent  his  life  in  finding 
arguments  to  keep  down  the  negro  in  order  to  save  the 
white  man,  at  last  could  speak  the  word  that  makes  the 
slave's  freedom  the  safety  of  both  races. 

His  coffin  sinks  between  the  Proclamation  and  the 
Amendment.  Yet  so  near  to  the  amendment  that  the 
falling  fetters  of  the  slave  drop  close  enough  to  join  with 
their  music  the  requiem  of  his  departure. 

SOLDIEBS  !  he  was  your  best  living  unbraided  example 
of  loyalty,  bravery,  and  industrious  perseverance  in 
battling  for  the  right.  Scholar,  statesman,  and  politician, 
aspiring  for  honors,  office,  or  power ;  here'  is  one  who  held 
them  all  not  by  cunning  fraud,  selfishness,  or  corruption, 
but  advanced  and  adorned  them  all,  official  power  with 
moral  power — the  chair  of  state  with  the  chair  of  learning, 
popularity  with  duty,  the  caprices  of  multitudes  with  the 
steadiness  of  pure  aims  and  industrious  habits.  Follow  his 
example,  and  you  may  go  to  your  grave  smothered  in  his 
flowers,  ringing  with  his  plaudits.  Forget  him,  prefer 
cunning  to  candor,  treason  to  patriotism,  pursue  the  op- 
posite road  to  fame,  and  I  care  not  how  high  you  soar, 
Arnold,  Burr  and  Davis  will  be  the  dark  trinity  to  whose 
degraded  eminence  posterity  will  commit  your  worthless 
immortality. 


LETTER 


ADDRESSED  TO 


PKESLDENT  LINCOLN, 


AT  THE  BEQUEST  OF  THE 


WORKINGMEN'S  ASSOCIATION  OF  NEW  YORK. 


[THE  Workingmen's  Association  of  this  city  some 
days  since  passed  a  resolution  requesting  DAVID  S.  COD- 
DINGTON,  Esq.,  to  address  President  LINCOLN  a  congratula- 
tory letter  in  their  behalf  upon  his  inauguration  and  the 
progress  of  events.  Mr.  CODDINGTON  complied  with  their 
request  in  the  following  production  :] 


YOBK,  March  4,  1865. 
"  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

u  I  am  deputed  by  the  "Workingmen's  Association 
of  this  city  to  congratulate  you,  the  hardest  worker  of 
them  all,  upon  the  noble  work  which,  through  you,  free 
labor  is  achieving  for  free  government.  To-day  your 
new  administration  steps  into  the  circle  of  nations  with  a 
new  America.  The  obligations  of  the  past  are  dissolved. 
Reluctance  to  disturb  an  especial  institution  has  "been 


134  LETTER  ADDRESSED   TO 

summarily  cured  by  the  awful  vigor  with  which  that  in- 
stitution has  shaken  and  disturbed  us.  That  branch  of 
State  rights  which  gives  a  State  the  right  to  destroy  the 
nation  has  been  confiscated  by  the  nation.  Violated 
democracy  secures  its  safety  and  revenges  its  wrongs  by 
withdrawing  the  right  to  degrade  labor. 

"  To-day  at  twelve  o'clock  you  will  again  lay  your 
winning  hand  on  that  Inaugural  Bible,  once  moist  with 
the  warm,  pure  kiss  of  Washington.  For  thirty  years 
your  predecessors'  Presidential  lives  have  expired  with 
their  first  term.  How  is  it  that  you,  reeking  with  con- 
flict, and  gory  with  recreant  blood,  march  to  your  second 
oath  with  a  conqueror's  strength  and  a  saviour's  applause  ? 
How  is  it  that  you,  who  have  exhausted  more  treasure, 
encouraged  more  taxes,  hurled  more  thunder,  and  filled 
more  graves  than  all  the  combined  Presidents  since  the 
constitution,  than  all  the  heroes  and  statesmen  preceding 
the  constitution,  than  any  conqueror  who  has  founded  or 
distracted  American  empire,  from  Fernando  Cortez  to  the 
German  emigrant  who  struts  under  t'he  pilfered  crown  of 
Mexico ; — how  is  it,  with  the  habeas  corpus  suspended, 
Fort  Lafayette  in  good  working  order,  and  errors  com- 
mitted, both  political  and  military,  you  go  to  the  Capitol 
to-day  riddled  with  flowers  instead  of  bayonets ;  armed 
only  with  a  Bible  and  flag,  swept  there  by  no  force  but 
the  overwhelming  flood  of  warm  and  willing  votes  ?  If 
to  preserve  the  principles  of  Washington  you  have  been 
obliged  to  destroy  life  with  the  prodigality  of  Napoleon, 
a  discriminating  people  have  consigned  you  to  no  rock 
but  the  solid  constancy  of  the  national  approbation.  They 
believe  that  if  you  have  stretched  power,  it  was  to  pre- 
serve power ;  if  you  are  spilling  your  brother's  blood,  it  is 
to  save  your  father's  work.  They  know  that  the  ferocity 
and  discord  of  a  few  years  means  the  humanity  and  har- 


PRESIDENT   LINCOLN.  135 

mony  of  centuries.  They  see  the  yoke  of  a  guiltless  race 
falling  into  the  grave  of  a  guilty  South,  and  they  cry 
amen  to  a  deed  that  punishes  the  rebel's  broken  oath  with 
the  negro's  broken  chain.  Abstract  virtue  might  exact  a 
less  selfish  emancipation.  But  when  we  remember  the 
trials  of  a  people  tied  up  with  inherited  evils,  the  struggle 
and  the  deliverance  are  not  unworthy  of  us. 

"  Some  wise  people  think  that  to  spare  slavery  now  is 
to  stop  war.  But  as  slavery  was  safely  spared  when  it 
began  war,  what  hope  is  there  that  a  government  which 
was  defied  when  its  debt  was  only  eighty  millions  of  dol- 
lars, will  not  be  attacked  when  it  is  oppressed  with  a  debt 
of  two  or  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars?  The  debt 
alone  must  destroy  slavery,  or  slavery  will  crush  us  with 
debt.  Bring  them  back  without  emancipation  and  this 
is  their  argument :  '  "We  hate  you  as  ever,  because  you 
hate  slavery,  because  you  are  richer  than  us,  and  more 
than  ever  now  because  you  have  beaten  us.  We  ground 
our  arms  because  you  are  too  many  for  us — that  is  no  dis- 
grace. You  have  grounded  your  principles  to  save  more 
debt — that  is  contemptible.  You  have  spent  three  thou- 
sand millions  of  dollars,  endured  great  suffering,  and  here 
we  are  with  our  old  hate  and  our  old  institution  back 
again,  ready,  if  you  begin-  to  cant  and  talk  anti-slavery 
again,  to  fight  you  again,  with  a  better  chance  next  time, 
when  you  are  staggering  towards  bankruptcy.' 

"  '  Oh,  but  slavery  is  dead,'  says  the  opposition.  This 
time  the  tomb  is  a  dodge  to  get  into  the  temple.  If  the 
war  should  run  off  every  slave  but  two,  and  the  South 
should  come  back  with  only  Pompey  and  Dinah,  they 
would  in  time  breed  back  the  real  slave  population,  breed 
back  the  old  brood  of  fire-eaters,  conspirators,  and  armed 
enemies,  and,  with  the  help  of  Yallandigham  &  Co.  here, 
and  of  Laird  &  Co.'s  English  neutrality  abroad,  who 


136  LETTER  ADDRESSED   TO 

doubts  their  ability  for  increased  mischief?  Those  who 
cry  ruin  if  we  don't  spare  slavery,  cried  ruin  if  we  re-elect- 
ed you ;  cried  ruin  if  you  superseded  McClellan ;  cried 
ruin  if  we  resisted  traitors.  It  is  the  favorite  cry  against 
those  who  differ  with  us.  In  1824,  "Webster  cried  ruin 
if  a  high  tariff  was  passed.  In  1842,  he  cried  ruin  if  it 
was  defeated.  Clay  told  the  world  that  the  Sub-Treasury 
was  the  knell  of  finance,  and  when  a  boy,  I  heard  a  dis- 
tinguished publicist  call  Jackson  a  scoundrel,  who  should 
be  shot ;  and  I  heard  the  same  person  very  lately  speak 
of  him  as  all  that  was  great  and  good.  Without  abolition, 
what  do  we  gain  by  blood  sacrifice  ?  Not  population  or 
territory,  for  we  fight  no  foreign  foe ;  not  colonies,  or  de- 
pendencies, for  we  bring  back  only  our  equals.  It  is 
nothing  to  punish  unless  we  remove  the  cause  of  punish- 
ment. Is  the  great  commotion  to  produce  only  railroads 
torn  up  and  store-houses  burned  down  ?  Is  that  in  the  7- 
30  and  10-40  contracts?  No,  sir.  The  workingmen  of 
this  nation  expect  to  work  out  of  this  war  with  the  digni- 
ty of  work  fully  established.  As  a  skilful  pianist  only 
brings  out  the  full  tones  of  his  instrument  in  touching  all 
the  keys,  both  black  and  white,  so  shall  you  in  using  all 
the  forces  of  free  labor  draw  out  the  grand  harmonies  of 
our  national  march. 

"  Four  years  ago  you  were  dodging  assassins  on  your 
way  to  empire.  To-day  your  safe  conduct  is  written  with 
the  blood  that  oozes  from  a  dying  heresy.  Four  years 
ago  you  only  rode  to  the  capital  through  a  gap  in  the 
democratic  party ;  to-day  you  are  there  in  spite  of  the 
union  of  all  the  elements  that  threatened  the  Union.  In 
that  anxious  November  contest  how  we  held  our  breath 
for  fear  some  other  breath  of  popular  caprice  might  waft 
some  weaker  hand  to  grasp  the  difficulty,  might  lift  some 
lesser  light  to  chase  this  southern  darkness  from  our  land. 


PRESIDENT   LINCOLN. 


137 


The  delicate  and  important  point  in  that  canvass  was, 
how  to  elect  you  without  spoiling  you  ;  how  to  trust  your 
future  without  sanctioning  all  your  past.  Popularity  so 
often  exaggerates  self-importance,  that  self-discipline  some- 
times relapses  into  self-sufficiency.  Heavy  minorities  are 
the  healthiest  monitors  of  successful  candidates  for  power. 
Kulers  will  measure  their  duties  by  the  distance  between 
the  possession  of  office  and  the  possibility  of  its  loss.  In 
perilous  times,  while  wielding  immense  resources,  the 
temptation  to  play  the  despot  is  always  strong.  It  is  so 
simple,  so  direct  and  so  effective.  In  proportion  as 
powerful  elements  are  excited  are  we  stimulated  to  use 
power  in  grappling  with  them.  But  in  the  last  Presi- 
dential contest  the  issues  were  so  wide  apart,  the  alterna- 
tive so  distinct  and  peremptory,  whether  we  would  sur- 
render to  a  crime  or  get  along  with  a  few  faults,  many 
virtues  and  much  experience,  that  whatever  fear  the  peo- 
ple felt  of  demoralizing  you  with  an  extravagant  approval, 
was  lost  in  the  pride  of  overwhelmingly  extinguishing  the 
degrading  ticket  that  confronted  you. 

"  The  people  of  this  country  are  ever  a  hopeful  people- 
hopeful  of  victories  in  battle,  hopeful  of  reform  in  rulers. 
They  do  not  believe  that  you  will  misconstrue  your  tri- 
umph, although  you  go  back  to  the  chair  almost  with  the 
strength  of  a  constitutional  amendment. 

"  You  may  have  shaped  the  first  for  this  second  coming 

your  future  rule  can  only  prepare  itself  for  a  grateful 

immortality.  Your  election  in  1860  was  a  political  com- 
monplace ;  the  old  story  of  '  available  candidate '  and  a 
party  victory,  born  of  Greeley's  tactics  and  Buchanan's 
blunders.  The  North,  too  humane  to  love  slavery,  and 
too  constitutional  to  disturb  it,  meant  no  mischief  until 
the  mischief-mongers  of  the  South  taught  us  how  to  beat 
them  at  their  own  business.  No  doubt  the  instincts  of 


138  LETTER   ADDRESSED   TO 

the  nation  would  have  gravitated  in  time  to  where  war 
has  hurried  it.  All  great  reforms  have  been  precipitated 
by  the  crimes  or  the  weaknesses  of  individuals.  The  im- 
becility of  King  John  gave  England  Magna  Charta  a 
hundred  years  before  the  intelligence  of  the  age  could 
have  wrung  it  from  the  average  energy  of  barbaric  power. 
Habeas  corpus  was  hastened  by  Charles  the  Second's  love 
of  women  being  more  ardent  than  his  love  of  authority. 
Common  prudence  in  Lord  North  and  his  compeers  might 
have  adjourned  the  Declaration  of  Independence  until 
this  very  hour  that  we  have  so  powerfully  proved  our 
right  to  it.  The  ball  fired  at  our  government  has  brought 
down  nothing  but  the  institution  which  most  embarrassed 
it.  **Dhe  South  thought  the  North  was  playing  billiards 
with  the  election  of  1860.  Cushioning  on  the  Territories 
to  carom  on  the  States  ;  in  pushing  their  cues  too  vigor- 
ously they  have  only  pocketed  themselves. 

"  No  man  ever  assumed  power  so  disadvantageously  as 
yourself.  Some  Western  lawsuits,  a  few  stump  speeches, 
and  one  unexciting  Congressional  term  sums  up  the  ex- 
perience that  was  to  administer  a  calamity  fifty  years 
brewing.  Yet  directness  of  purpose  and  vigor  of  under- 
standing have  relieved  us  from  the  sad  anarchy  promised 
by  the  experienced  imbecility  that  preceded  you.  You 
left  home  with  a  confused  impression  that  something  was 
wrong,  but  that  it  must  all  work  right.  Fond  of  a  joke 
yourself,  it  might  be  possible  they  were  only  helping  you 
to  a  new  anecdote.  A  government  so  innocent  could  not 
be  the  victim  of  such  guilt.  You  brought  an  honest  heart 
to  a  deceitful  era.  You  possessed  neither  the  perceptions 
nor  the  wickedness  to  see  the  awful  depth  of  the  maligni- 
ty that  lay  at  the  base  of  your  election.  When  you 
stepped  upon  the  deck,  what  wild  disorder  pervaded  the 
ship  of  state  ?  There  lay  the  old  pilot  swooning  at  the 


PRESIDENT    LINCOLN.  139 

helm,  drugged  "with  Southern  opiates.  There  lay  the  con- 
stitution torn  in  pieces  by  the  wrestlings  of  its  defenders. 
The  very  freedom  of  the  system  embarrassing  all  freedom 
of  action,  no  pretext  to  justify  wrong,  no  precedent  to 
need  it.  How  shall  authority  be  exercised  against  the 
authors  of  all  authority?  With  a  bewildered  look  you 
gazed  on  the  ghastly  gift  of  November,  in  doubt  whether 
yon  came  to  Washington  to  attend  a  funeral  or  execute  a 
contract.  Office-seekers  begging  for  office,  patriots  asking 
for  a  country ;  the  rebel  commissioners  knocking  for  ad- 
mission— not  for  the  halter  they  had  earned — but  for  their 
share  of  the  ruins  they  had  made ;  not  ambassadors,  but 
grave-diggers  came  for  the  body,  prepared  to  bury  Ameri- 
can liberty  under  the  dust  of  their  rubbish  platrbudes. 
We  all  have  our  theories  how  they  ought  to  have  been 
treated,  how  much  wiser  our  little  wisdom  could  have 
managed  the  war.  Ministers  of  great  emergencies  escape 
not  great  calumnies.  Censure  now,  immortality  hereafter. 
Washington  shot  in  effigy  by  one  State,  moved  to  be  im- 
peached by  another,  the  descendants  of  both  contending 
for  his  autograph.  If  Jackson  regretted  at  his  death-bed 
that  he  had  not  hung  Calhoun,  no  such  sorrow  can  shade 
the  dying  hour  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  shot  he  has 
poured  into  Calhoun's  successors  will  rattle  along  the  cen- 
turies for  many  eras  of  American  history,  to  which  saddest 
and  profoundest  calamity  of  that  history  he  is  indissolubly 
linked.  If  Jackson  immortalized  himself  by  rocking  to 
sleep  the  infant  disunion,  what  must  be  his  fame  who  shall 
forever  hush  the  full-grown  demon  ? 

"If  George  Washington  challenges  the  glory  of  the 
world  for  lifting  up  one  race,  what  renown  awaits  him 
who  redeems  two  ?  Saratoga  and  Yorktown  snapped  the 
Ainerico-Saxon  chain,  but  Grant's  gripe  chokes  the  wrongs 
of  two  races ;  Sherman's  march  guards  the  progress  of  the 


140        LETTER   ADDRESSED   TO   PRESIDENT   LINCOLN. 

fallen  as  well  as  the  favored  color.  The  South,  which 
loses  its  temper  in  proportion  as  it  loses  its  territories, 
attempts  to  stamp  on  the  leader  in  all  these  reforms  the 
degrading  epithets  of  'tyrant,'  'buffoon,'  'Illinois  ape.' 
Unfortunately  for  them,  unlike  the  African  ape,  his  anger 
does  not  throw  down  at  random  luscious  cocoanuts.  The 
fruit  are  better  aimed,  and  bear  blood  instead  of  milk. 

"The  contest,  though  unfinished,  is  no  longer  uncer- 
tain. Calhoun's  grave  is  in  our  possession.  His  theory 
is  under  the  feet  of  our  armed  heroes.  What  peace  shall 
parole  the  captured  doctrine?  As  workingmen  respect- 
fully but  manfully  addressing  the  master-worker,  this 
Association  bid  you  God  speed. 

"  DAVID  S.  CODDINGTON, 

"  On  behalf  of  the  Workingmen's  Democratic-Kepub- 
lican  Association  of  New  York." 


SPEECH 

BEFORE  THE 

15TH  WARD  FREE  SOIL  LEAGUE, 

NOVEMBER,  1848. 


I  MIGHT  be  tempted  to  apologize  for  the  presumption 
which  brings  either  the  person  or  the  sentiment  of  so 
obscure  an  individual  as  myself  before  this  assemblage, 
was  I  not  persuaded  that  my  audacity,  like  our  prosperity, 
is  the  natural  result  of  those  intimate  relations  which  the 
humblest  of  us  bear  towards  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try. "When  wise  statesmen,  in  grave  council,  place  the 
disposal  of  great  questions  and  the  selection  of  great  offi- 
cers at  the  mercy  of  the  boy  of  twenty-one,  equally  with 
the  veteran  of  sixty ;  when  the  state  in  adopting  us,  as  a 
necessity  teaches  us  to  be  proud,  by  permitting  us  to 
decide;  when  it  gives  importance  to  insignificance,  by 
associating  the  ignorant  and  the  inexperienced  in  a  com- 
munity of  privileges  with  learning  and  intelligence,  I 
own  the  pride  of  ultimate  power  reassures  my  diffident 
mediocrity  and  encourages  me,  however  humble,  to  claim 
of  you  that  indulgence  in  the  discussion  of  important 
principles  which  the  law  has  so  solemnly  granted  me  with 
others  in  determining.  For,  be  it  remembered  that  the 


142  SPEECH   BEFORE   THE 

power  which  places  a  ballot  in  our  hands  is  but  the  recog- 
nition of  that  higher  power  which  placed  a  voice  in  our 
mouths,  and  that  the  security  and  efficacy  of  the  one  de-- 
pends  much  upon  the  truth,  the  freedom,  and  the  energy 
with  which  we  exercise  the  other.  It  is  a  condition  of 
liberty  that  society  thall  be  burthened  in  proportion  as  it 
is  favored,  that  the  decree  of  the  fall  shall  accompany  our 
rise ;  that  man  must  toil  for  his  freedom  as  he  does  for  his 
bread;  that  every  immunity  is  the  parent  of  a  respon- 
sibility, and  that  increased  duties  are  but  incidental  to 
multiplied  rights.  It  is  the  purport  of  these  duties  to 
elevate  our  morals  to  the  level  of  our  fortunes,  to  render 
natures  equally  as  corrupt  as  the  rest  of  the  race  worthy 
to  enjoy  institutions  far  superior,  and  by  making  each 
man's  politics  the  guardian  of  his  personal  interests,  not 
only  to  preserve  but  justify  the  principle  that  exacts  them. 
For  what  is  this  liberty  of  which  we  boast  so  much  but  a 
presumptuous  paradox,  until,  by  discipline  and  self-sacri- 
fice, by  that  magnanimity  which  will  not  abuse  power, 
and  that  fortitude  which,  in  the  moment  of  peril,  can  sus- 
tain it,  by  ceaseless  vigilance  and  approved  sagacity,  it 
has  worked  its  way  to  the  dignity  of  a  truth  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  a  blessing  ?  "What  right  have  we  to  rebel  against 
the  world's  law,  who  appropriate  to  ourselves  the  world's 
goods,  unless  we  sanctify  that  rebellion  by  obedience  to  a 
holier  creed  ?  By  what  authority  do  we  build  the  free- 
man's privileges  upon  the  Christian's  precepts  if  this  sov- 
ereign discretion  is  to  become  an  instrument  of  immorali- 
ty— if  this  hard-earned,  dearly-prized,  never  to  be  excelled 
acquisition  is,  after  all,  only  a  new  way  to  perpetuate  old 
vices,  only  a  wider  path  in  the  same  journey  of  national 
aggression,  beginning  in  the  pertinacity  which  adheres  to 
past  perfidy  and  ending  in  the  extension  of  inherited  pol- 
lution over  tortiously  acquired  possessions?  These  are 


15TH   WARD   FREE    SOIL   LEAGUE.  143 

questions,  fellow  citizens,  which  it  were  well  for  us  had 
they  never  to  be  asked  of  a  people  who  are  living  upon 
the  fruits  of  their  virtues ;  of  a  people  whose  land  is 
covered  with  the  bounty,  and  whose  history  is  filled  with 
the  glory  of  considerate  ancestors  :  questions  which 
Southern  recklessness  and  Southern  selfishness  have  forced 
upon  us,  and  which  nothing  but  Northern  rectitude  and 
Northern  prudence  can  determine. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  popular  elections 
we  join  issue  upon  the  public  morality.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  party  conflicts  we  present  the  sin- 
gular spectacle  of  a  nation  most  divided  upon  what  best 
preserves  it.  How  melancholy  is  the  reflection,  that  in  a 
country  settled  by  Christians,  and  guarded  by  patriots,  it 
should  be  necessary  to  organize  a  separate  party  for  the 
rescue  of  a  single  virtue ;  to  lay  down  our  old  issues,  to 
abandon  old  friends,  to  forego  the  predilections  of  habit- 
ual association,  and  hasten  to  the  relief  of  a  tottering 
principle,  which,  if  it  falls,  must  carry  with  it  whatever  is 
valuable  in  opinions,  whatever  is  attractive  in  friendship, 
or  tenacious  in  customs :  that  for  placing  ourselves  upon 
the  bark  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  the  only  party  which  has 
dared  to  meet  the  elements  of  political  intolerance,  in 
order  to  save  the  justice  of  the  state,  we  should  be 
denied  a  landing  in  face  of  an  harbor,  denied  an  existence 
in  spite  of  the  power  with  which  we  held  our  reproach, 
threatened  with  the  vengeance  of  one  party,  and  assured 
of  the  triumph  of  another,  because  we  dared  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  both. 

Mr.  Webster,  in  his  late  speech,  treats  our  pretensions 
as  a  party  with  as  little  ceremony  as  the  Whig  party  does 
his  own  claims  to  their  favors.  With  an  oracular  assur- 
ance, pardonable  in  confirmed  intelligence,  he  has  an- 
nounced to  his  friends  the  gratifying  information  that  his 


144  SPEECH   BEFORE   THE 

old  acquaintance,  General  Cass,  and  his  new  favorite, 
General  Taylor,  are  the  only  two  candidates  who  intend 
to  trouble  this  goodly  people  for  their  suffrages :  with  a 
wave  of  his  august  finger  he  does  not  merely  summon  Mr. 
Yan  Buren  from  his  high  pedestal,  and  like  the  injured 
fairy,  order  him  to  occupy  some  less  distinguished  position, 
to  assume  some  less  honorable  shape,  to  pass  from  a  man 
to  a  beast  or  reptile  or  creeping  vermin ;  oh,  no !  he  is 
even  less  considerate  than  the  vengeful  enchantress,  he  is 
not  even  so  thoughtful  as  to  relieve  disease  and  nature  at 
some  future  day  of  the  trouble  of  disembodying  him,  not 
he.  He  must  deny  that  such  a  candidate  or  his  party 
ever  had  existed,  or  ever  could  exist. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Webster  intended  us  to  believe  that  if 
he  had  ever  recognized  us  as  a  party,  it  was  not  from 
facts  furnished  by  his  memory,  but  a  phantom  which  ex- 
pired with  the  gleam  of  fancy  that  created  it. 

That  if  he  ever  had  appeared  anxious  lest  the  Free 
Soil  question  should  absorb  the  best  strength  of  his  party, 
and  had  stimulated  him  to  apply  his  masterly  energies  to 
an  unwonted  extent,  it  was  rather  to  exhibit  his  own  skill 
in  the  legerdemain  of  politics,  by  making  things  that 
could  not  be,  seem  as  though  they  had  been — to  show 
what  might  be  said  of  such  a  party,  if  it  had  existed.  As 
skilful  pugilists  sometimes  practise  themselves,  by  as- 
suming attitudes,  and  squaring  scientifically  at  supposed 
antagonists,  who  would  certainly  have  been  floored,  had 
they  been  present  to  receive  the  blows. 

Mr.  Webster  no  doubt  has  brains  enough  to  colonize 
another  Olympus,  but  I  doubt  much  whether  the  weight 
of  his  logic,  ponderous  as  it  is,  could  crush  a  fact.  There 
have  been  Eastern  despots  who  indulged  themselves  every 
morning  with  the  merciful  amusement  of  cutting  off  the 
heads  of  the  faithful.  They  have  an  illustrious  rival  in 


15TH   WARD   FREE   SOIL   LEAGUE.  145 

our  own  oriental  Daniel,  who,  with  one  sweep  of  his 
lingual  scythe,  mows  down  thousands  of  the  sturdy 
democracy  who  crowd  this  fair  republic,  from  the  waters 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Missouri.  If  we  are  no  party, 
having  no  principles,  and  no  being,  why  do  opposition 
orators  expend  so  many  arguments  to  preserve  their  adhe- 
rents from  contact  with  this  nonentity  ?  "Why  charge  a 
cannon  to  break  a  bubble?  Why  fulminate  anathemas 
against  a  creedless,  bodiless  heresy  ? 

Surely  there  must  be  something  worthy  of  counte- 
nance, something  not  altogether  too  insignificant  for 
investigation  in  a  cause  which  is  most  supported  when 
best  understood ;  which  finds  its  firmest  advocates  among 
its  severest  critics;  which,  though  still  cramped  and 
crowded  by  the  pressure  of  opposing  factions,  is  constantly 
appropriating  to  itself  the  better  opinion  of  men,  and 
reciprocating  the  service  which,  secures  a  warm  ally,  by 
furnishing  the  converted  with  a  creed  so  comprehensive 
and  elevated  that  he  will  never  be  ashamed  of  it.  If 
principles  are  to  be  adjudged  by  the  character  of  those 
who  advocate  them,  who  are  the  exponents  of  this  rebel 
faith  ?  "Who  the  actors  in  this  grand  drama  of  political 
and  social  redemption  ?  It  is  not  the  politician  panting  for 
patronage ;  the  signs  are  too  inauspicious  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  voracity. 

It  is  not  the  man-worshipper  whose  home  is  at  the 
hero's  feet.  He  has  a  windfall  from  Mexico,  and  has 
already  placed  himself  in  his  favorite  dust.  It  is  not 
the  strict,  undeviating,  habitual  partisan  who  sees  no 
merit  in  public  conduct  worthy  of  his  emulation,  beyond 
the  limits  of  party  acquiescence ;  he  has  his  duty  marked 
out  and  ratified  before  his  candidate  is  proclaimed,  and 
will  support  him,  no  matter  how  iniquitous  the  means  by 
which  that  nomination  was  secured.  No,  it  is  not  such 
10 


146  SPEECH   BEFOEE   THE 

as  these  who  fraternize  with  us,  and  for  the  simple  reason, 
that  for  the  present,  we  can  only  furnish  them  with  that 
which  is  but  a  poor  recompense  to  the  selfish,  a  good  con- 
science. We  have  no  splendid  military  chieftain  to  allure, 
by  aggressive  triumphs,  followers  whom  the  naked  merits 
of  his  cause  never  could  seduce.  We  have  no  candidate 
for  the  chief  office  who  was  born  of  a  convention  which 
purported  to  sanction  old  established  party  usages,  and  to 
represent  and  respect  the  united  democracy  of  this  whole 
Union,  and  who,  in  violation  of  both  usages  and  opinions, 
shut  out  the  largest  single  delegation  in  that  Union  from 
a  participation  in  the  solemn  objects  of  its  congregation. 

We  have  nothing  about  us  to  attract  the  greedy,  the 
senseless,  or  the  timid.  Our  position  requires  too  much 
reasoning  for  the  thoughtless  to  comprehend,  and  is  an 
undertaking  far  more  hazardous  than  the  nervous  or  the 
yielding  dare  attempt.  Our  advocates  are  those  who 
have  too  little  immediate  interest  in  the  success  of  either 
of  the  two  great  parties  not  to  abandon  both  at  the 
moment  they  perceive  any  other  means  of  benefiting 
their  country. 

To  assume  any  other  relations,  to  advocate  any  other 
questions,  and  to  organize  any  other  system  of  political 
action  whenever  the  policy  of  the  party  to  which  they  are 
attached  is  found  insufficient  to  further  the  permanent 
interests  of  the  whole  nation.  That  man  who  deserts  his 
party  when  that  party  deserts  its  duty  will  never  suffer 
his  politics  to  place  his  morals  in  jeopardy.  The  greater 
part  of  those  who  advocate  our  cause  are  men  who  have 
never  been  jostled  from  their  propriety  by  the  thunders 
of  a  noisy  reputation,  who  will  never  be  diverted  from 
healthy  avocations  either  to  assume  the  defence  of  ques- 
tionable doctrines,  or  to  place  their  fortunes  at  the  dis- 
posal of  a  capricious  multitude.  Their  good  sense  is  too 


15TH   WARD   FREE   SOIL   LEAGUE.  147 

strong  for  the  sophistries  of  party,  and  useful  pursuits 
place  them  above  the  temptation  of  patronage.  Their 
fidelity  cannot  be  questioned,  because  it  is  only  tendered 
until  conscience  summons  it  elsewhere.  Its  travelling 
clothes  are  always  upon  its  back,  and  at  the  first  beck  of 
truth  it  sets  out  for  a  more  congenial  residence.  We  have 
men  among  us  sternly  and  boldly  enlisted  in  this  cause, 
who  in  ordinary  times  are  known  only  as  the  pliant, 
placable  servants  of  the  law ;  who  are  noted  for  the  fidelity 
with  which  they  discharge  social  duties,  and  the  modesty 
with  which  they  shrink  from  public  honors ;  who  never 
intrude  their  opinions  upon  the  state,  when  its  safety  can 
dispense  with  them,  and  who  from  a  contented  and  a  re- 
spected retirement  behold  with  unconcern  the  successive 
dynasties  of  the  popular  will,  like  the  stately  figures  of  a 
magic  lantern,  in  rapid  and  regular  order,  advancing  from 
the  midst  and  retiring  back  into  the  bosom  of  the  people. 
Yet  when  this  goodly  laud  is  threatened  with  near  im- 
pending danger,  and  its  children  are  summoned  to  shield 
the  purest  of  governments  from  the  plunder  of  solemnly 
sanctioned  powers,  these  are  the  men  whose  dormai. 
sovereignty  awakes  at  the  call,  and  are  the  first  to  tender 
the  long-reserved  suffrages  for  the  support  of  the  public 
necessities.  There  is  the  minister  of  God,  who  will  not 
rest  in  his  pulpit  until  he  has  deposited  his  vote  in  favor 
of  that  virtue  which  his  life  is  sworn  to  defend.  There  is 
the  scholar,  who  will  consider  his  time  and  his  oil  wasted 
until  he  has  added  his  mite  in  our  behalf;  for  the  study 
of  all  men,  in  all  ages,  has  taught  him  the  value  of  the 
principles  for  which  we  contend.  There  is  the  poet, 
whom  we  will  summon  from  his  dreams  of  more  perfect 
institutions,  to  secure  those  he  already  possesses  from 
spoliation.  There  is  the  Christian,  whose  daily  prayer 
ascends  heavenward  upon  the  breath  of  liberated  piety. 


148  SPEECH   BEFORE    THE 

Grateful  for  his  own  emancipation,  lie  will  not  forget  the 
cause  which  would  arrest  a  more  grievous  oppression. 
The  philosopher,  who,  in  his  deepest  meditations  still 
finds  virtue  the  profoundest  wisdom, — he  will  make  that 
result  the  guide  of  his  political  conduct,  and  it  will  place 
him  by  our  side.  The  free  laborer,  who,  even  in  the 
homeliness  of  his  occupation,  remembers  the  dignity  of  hia 
nature, — he  will  hold  his  plough  firmer  and  his  head 
higher,  when  he  has  voted  for  that  party  which  would 
relieve  him  from  the  bondsman's  company  by  redressing 
the  bondsman's  wrongs.  Those  men  will  be  with  us  who 
have  no  prejudices  against  a  new  cause  because  it  confides 
in  old  names ;  and  those  names  grown  venerable  in  long 
and  effectual  public  service;  who  have  the  patience  to 
investigate  a  good  cause,  and  conscience  enough  to  em- 
brace it,  when  abundant  arguments  are  advanced  in  its 
favor.  Conscientious  Whigs,  conscientious  Democrats, 
who  can  see  nothing  so  alluring  in  either  of  the  two  great 
parties,  to  deter  them  from  the  united  support  of  prin- 
ciples which  it  is  the  first  interest  of  both  parties  to 
advocate,  and  which  both  parties  have  agreed  to  abandon ; 
who  look  upon  the  questions  of  financial  policy  which  for- 
merly separated  them,  as  lost,  in  comparison  with  the 
holier  ones  which  now  sanctify  their  union.  The  former 
are  temporary  expedients  to  meet  present  emergencies, 
while  the  latter  are  comprehensive  principles  which  sus- 
tain eternal  laws.  The  most  splendid  schemes  ever 
devised  for  advancing  the  fortunes  of  this  prudent,  indus- 
trious, aspiring  nation,  are  but  poor  substitutes  for  the 
loss  of  their  virtue. 

The  world  will  forgive  us  mistakes  in  matters  of  ordi- 
nary policy,  and  in  pitying  our  ignorance  will  pardon  our 
blunders;  but  who  will  be  the  champion  of  abandoned 
rectitude  ?  Who  dare  vindicate  the  ravish er  of  his  coun- 


15TH  WARD  FREE  SOIL   LEAGUE.  149 

try's  fame  ?  Is  this  mere  declamation  ?  Let  us  see  if  the 
facts  are  not  as  large  as  the  words  that  cover  them.  The 
South  claim  the  right  to  carry  the  local  institution  of 
slavery  into  the  territory  belonging  to  the  whole  Union. 
In  the  name  of  morality  and  our  own  personal  interest,  in 
common  with  the  other  States,  in  that  territory,  we  assert 
our  right  through  the  general  Congress  to  prevent  it. 
The  main  arguments  in  support  of  this  right  the  country 
have  by  heart.  I  cannot  improve  upon  them.  Yet  there 
are  a  few  of  the  stronger  points  which  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated.  Wherever  in  the  Constitution  the  slaveholder 
resorts  for  his  slave  privileges,  that  instrument  calls  them 
by  no  other  name  than  persons.  There  are  but  two 
clauses  in  his  favor.  The  one  clause  legalizes  the  posses- 
sion. It  is  thus :  No  person  held  to  service  in  one  State 
shall  be  released  from  the  same  by  the  law  of  any  other 
State.  The  other  clause  is  the  granary  where  he  picks 
the  seed  which  grows  the  representative.  It  says :  After 
citizens,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons,  except  Indians, 
shall  be  included  in  the  ratio  of  representation.  No  men- 
tion is  made  of  property  held  to  service.  Neither  does  it 
say  three-fifths  of  all  other  property  shall  be  represented. 

When  the  tax-gatherer  comes  to  assess  the  planter,  he 
ranges  his  slave  by  the  side  of  his  horse,  his  dog,  and  his 
cow,  and  points  to  them  as  a  part  of  his  personal  estate. 
When  the  census-taker  approaches,  this  slave  is  led  out 
from  among  the  four-footed  tribe,  and  placed  within  the 
family  group  by  the  side  of  his  wife,  his  sons,  and  his 
daughters,  and  numbered  as  a  part  of  his  human  house- 
hold— for  while  in  the  presence  of  that  officer  the  slave 
is  three-fifths  of  a  man.  After  assisting  to  make  a  repre- 
sentative he  goes  back  to  his  barn-yard  brethren,  and 
renews  the  toil  which  furnishes  the  means  to  pay  that 
representative  for  extending  and  perpetuating  the  misery 


150  SPEECH   BEFORE   THE 

of  his  race.  What  a  pleasant  occupation  for  a  human 
being — to  employ  three-fifths  of  his  manhood  in  making 
himself  a  whole  slave. 

I  do  not  mention  this  as  a  matter  of  reproach,  for  I 
believe  within  certain  limits  it  is  unavoidable  at  present. 
But  when  the  South  attempts  to  reduce  slaves  to  the  level 
of  ordinary  property,  to  amalgamate  them  among  tilings, 
to  dress  them  up  as  utensils,  and  in  this  disguise  to  smug- 
gle them  through  the  Constitution  into  the  territory  of  the 
whole  nation,  where  we  hold  them  as  contraband,  every 
weapon,  whether  it  be  of  satire,  ridicule  or  reproach,  is 
legal  till  we  drive  them  over  the  border  into  their  own 
exclusive  local  jurisdiction. 

In  all  discussions  upon  the  extension  of  slavery,  we 
must  never  forget  to  summon  the  moral  law  to  our  assis- 
tance the  moment  its  supremacy  can  be  applied  without 
interfering  with  positive  enactments.  When  the  South, 
as  in  the  case  of  slave  property,  can  only  resort  to  implica- 
tion to  prove  that  slaves  are  property  in  its  strict  sense, 
we  have  the  right  to  apply  the  moral  law  and  say,  that 
what  the  necessities  of  the  Constitution  have  not  granted, 
in  the  name  of  justice  we  claim  the  benefit  of  in  our  own 
favor.  This  is  the  only  law  which  will  ever  decide  the 
contest  for  us.  Otherwise  it  is  an  equal  question.  For 
the  supremacy  of  this  moral  law  is  never  abrogated ;  it  is 
only  adjourned  temporarily  to  avoid  greater  evils,  and  by 
recognizing  the  moral  law  as  holding  the  balance  of  power 
between  the  constitutional  law  as  expressed  and  the  same 
as  implied,  we  secure  an  efficient  ally  in  concluding  this 
question  adversely  for  the  South. 

In  all  matters  of  general  policy  affecting  general 
interests,  a  moderate  exercise  of  implied  powers  is  absolute- 
ly necessary  to  carry  on  the  government ;  and  upon  this 
very  principle,  by  admitting  implied  powers  as  to  this 


15TH   WARD   FEEE   SOIL   LEAGUE.  151 

question,  we  encourage  slave  institutions.  There  is  suffi- 
cient positive  authority  in  the  Constitution  given  them  to 
protect  their  rights  within  the  States.  Any  farther,  they 
must  expect  no  mercy. 

Every  slave  sanctioned  by  the  general  government  in 
the  Territories  is  a  slave  of  our  own,  protected  by  our  own 
laws,  working  upon  our  own  soil,  and  covering  us  with  the 
same  infamy  as  if  he  was  in  our  own  kitchen.  All  the 
acts  of  the  general  government  are  our  acts,  and  the 
moment  that  slavery  passes  from  under  the  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  the  States,  it  becomes  a  common  pestilence, 
and  every  white  man  is  a  slaveholder,  from  Canada  to 
California.  It  is  the  extreme  absoluteness  of  State  sover- 
eignty that  saves  us  now.  And  the  world  knows  this. 
But  place  one  foot  of  slavery  upon  the  soil  of  the  national 
domain,  and  though  it  be  but  a  handful  of  dirt,  you  will 
bury  in  it  the  shrivelled  corpse  of  the  public  honor.  You 
may  run  the  boundary  line  between  the  States  and  the 
Territory  with  your  finger :  the  moral  distance  between 
them  upon  this  question  is  as  boundless  as  the  heavens 
which  made  the  moral  law.  In  the  presence  of  State 
sovereignty,  the  federal  government  should  be  only  a 
mournful,  powerless  spectator.  When  it  reaches  the  Terri- 
tory its  responsibility  is  resumed.  And  in  the  name  of 
the  public  probity  we  call  upon  it  to  arrest  this  public 
iniquity.  The  South  tells  us  that  their  honor  is  at  stake 
upon  this  question.  That  nothing  can  save  it  but  the  dis- 
honor of  the  whole  confederacy.  This  is  pleasant  news 
for  the  North.  That  nothing  less  than  a  Tartar  expedition 
into  the  consciences  of  ten  millions  of  men  can  appease 
their  affronted  nature.  We  always  supposed  that  honor 
was  the  dignity  which  preserved  what  virtue  had  acquired, 
and  not  the  recklessness  which  gloried  in  its  loss  ;  that  it 
was  not  only  the  discipline  but  the  jealousy  of  reputation, 


152  SPEECH   BEFOKE   THE 

not  content  with  being  correct  but  must  needs  be  sensitive. 
While  we  possess  our  faculties  we  have  a  right  to  our 
opinions,  and  we  at  the  ISTortli  believe  that  a  truth  is  as 
valuable  as  a  negro.  That  a  prostrate  principle  is  as 
melancholy  a  spectacle  as  a  down-trodden  man,  and  that 
misfortune  in  bondage  is  far  less  to  "be  pitied  than  freedom 
in  disgrace  ;  for  the  one  has  only  lost  its  rights,  the  other 
has  forgotten  its  duties.  If  we  authorize  extension  of  this 
iniquity,  whoever  calls  us  free  will  be  declared  mad. 
Whoever  cites  us  as  an  example  for  imitation,  will  be 
shunned  as  the  apostle  of  deception.  Wherever  our  flag 
waves  it  will  be  the  herald  of  infamy.  Wherever  our 
name  is  pronounced  it  will  be  the  signal  for  reprehension. 
The  world  will  be  the  wiser  of  our  liberties  only  because 
in  the  worthlessness  of  the  achievement  they  will  be  con- 
soled for  their  own  loss.  While  Europe  has  begun  a 
contest  for  what  we  have  effected,  we  are  contending 
against  the  spirit  of  the  very  evils  which  they  have  almost 
demolished.  Is  it  not  one  argument  the  more  for  the 
oppressor,  and  one  argument  the  less  for  the  oppressed, 
that  in  the  heart  of  the  freest  country  upon  the  earth  an 
acrimonious  struggle  is  raging  to  perpetuate  the  bondage 
of  a  race  whom  the  greatest  powers  of  despotic  Europe 
have  spent  millions  to  redeem  ?  Are  not  all  the  thrones 
of  Europe  redolent  with  the  new-blown  flowers  of  conces- 
sion ?  and  though  some  of  them  have  sprouted  just  in  time 
to  deck  royalty  for  the  sacrifice,  may  not  this  simoom  blast 
of  slavery  extension  from  the  western  continent  wither  up 
these  flowers  and  sweep  back  the  desert  where  an  Eden 
had  just  begun  to  bloom  ?  Yet  why  should  we  invoke  the 
pride  of  the  people,  or  the  safety  of  the  world,  in  behalf 
of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  if  gratitude  for  those  who  made  us 
what  we  are  will  avail  nothing  ?  Who  is  the  author  of 
this  ordinance  ?  The  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 


15TH   WARD   FREE   SOIL   LEAGUE.  153 

pendence.  Who  sanctioned  it  with  his  signature  ?  The 
father  of  his  country.  Is  there  a  Democrat  who  reveres 
the  memory  of  the  man  who  has  furnished  him  with  a 
creed  which  has  enabled  him  almost  since  the  foundation 
of  the  government  to  triumph  over  every  faction  or  party 
arrayed  in  hostility  against  him ;  is  there  a  man,  I  say, 
that  will  believe  there  can  be  anything  unsound  in  this 
measure,  where  all  the  rest  he  has  received  from  the  same 
source  are  so  durable  ?  Who  is  there  so  presumptuous  ? 
Who  is  there  so  blasphemous,  as  will  dare  to  reflect  upon 
the  wisdom  of  Washington  ?  Would  he  who  gave  us  an 
Empire,  inflict  upon  us  an  injury  ?  Is  the  South  insulted 
by  its  best  defender,  and  he  who  was  one  of  their  own 
brethren  in  interest  and  in  locality?  Away  with  the 
sacrilege.  When  we  ask  you  to  pass  upon  this  proviso, 
we  ask  you  to  acknowledge  that  your  two  greatest  bene- 
factors were  not  your  greatest  blunderers  ;  to  prove  your 
gratitude  for  what  you  have  by  sanctioning  that  which  in 
their  good  judgment  they  approved.  If  our  voices  avail 
nothing,  let  the  spirit  of  the  departed  gdod  be  heard.  If 
you  will  not  hear  us  rebels,  listen  for  God's  sake,  listen  to 
the  Patriots  who  made  you  what  you  are. 

As  for  us  we  are  condemned  before  we  are  heard — if 
we  speak  of  principles,  we  are  told  of  treason  ;  if  we  point 
to  good  men  who  are  worthy  of  support  at  this  election, 
we  are  told  that  they  want  votes  to  justify  wrongs,  and 
not  to  advance  truths ;  that  Mr.  Yan  Buren  would  break 
down  his  party  because  it  would  not  raise  him  upon  its 
shoulders  ;  that  Judas  and  Arnold  are  patriots  by  the  side 
of  him.  When  they  call  Mr.  Van  Buren  a  traitor  to  them, 
they  call  him  truly  ;  for  in  this  treachery  to  infamy  is 
fidelity  to  virtue.  When  they  say  that  Mr.  Van  Buren 
is  ungrateful  because  he  will  not  be  unscrupulous,  they 
only  prove  that  he  has  chosen  rather  to  preserve  his  re 


154  SPEECH   BEFORE   THE 

spect  for  what  he  believes  to  be  the  right  than  his  gratitude 
towards  those  whom  he  knows  to  be  wrong.  What  an 
awful  crime — what  a  valid  excuse  for  persecution — that  a 
man  should  prefer  a  frowning  party  to  a  reproving  con- 
science! We  know  that  there  are  many  who  have  a 
strong  prejudice  against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  yet  we  never 
found  a  man  who  could  give  a  valid  reason  why.  Has  he 
the  mind  capable  of  conducting  the  head  of  the  state? 
Yes.  Did  you  ever  know  him  guilty,  either  in  or  out  of 
office,  of  an  imworthy»act  ?  Oh,  no.  Well,  then,  why  do 
you  dislike  him  ?  Why,  they  call  him  a  fox,  he  looks  so 
cunning.  A  man  to  be  popular  in  this  country  must 
either  be  a  great  general  or  a  great  orator.  Men  must 
either  be  excited  by  words  or  by  military  deeds.  Mr. 
Yan  Buren  is  neither,  but  he  is  far  safer  than  both.  Cool, 
discriminating  and  determined,  his  passions  never  interfere 
with  his  perceptions.  You  never  become  enthusiastic 
enough  in  his  favor  to  follow  him  right  or  wrong.  When 
you  follow  him  you  may  be  sure  you  are  nearly  right — 
you  may  be  sure  that  you  are  not  led  away  by  anything 
beyond  the  influence  of  the  cause  which  he  represents. 
His  judgment  is  too  omnipresent  ever  to  mislead  your 
own — his  integrity  too  well  tried  ever  to  betray  you  into 
crime.  Yet  he  is  only  a  man — a  fallible  man,  after  all. 
Will  men  refuse  to  advocate  a  cause  which  their  consciences 
approve,  merely  because  there  is  a  man  at  the  head  of  it 
who,  after  thirty  long  years  of  honorable  public  service, 
has,  by  a  few  mistakes,  proved  that  he  is  no  exception  to 
the  best  men  who  have  gone  before  him  ?  Whenever  you 
go  to  prove  his  inconsistency,  you  prove  his  veracity.  He 
may  have  changed  his  mind,  but  did  he  ever  break  his 
word  ?  In  '36  he  thought  that  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  ought  not  to  be  disturbed,  and  it  was  not ;  in 
'48  it  is  his  opinion  that  it  should  not  be  extended,  and 


15TH   WARD   FREE    SOIL  LEAGUE.  155 

will  he  not  adhere  to  it  ?  Half  the  enmity  he  now  pro- 
vokes has  been  caused  by  the  calumny  he  has  refuted. 
The  contest  of  '40,  which  consigned  him  to  retirement, 
brought  more  subsequent  disgrace  upon  this  land  than  it 
did  upon  its  rejected  chief.  If  there  is  a  "Whig  who  feels 
despondent  over  the  mournful  retrospect  which  the  last 
eight  years  of  his  country's  history  presents,  let  him  go 
back  to  the  ballot-box  of  '40,  and  behold  the  source  of  his 
grief.  All  the  evils  since  that  period  are  but  the  rebound 
from  the  state  house  of  his  inconsiderate  suffrage.  Bad 
laws  are  the  errors  of  men  coming  back  to  them  on  un- 
gratified  wants,  unprotected  interests,  and  disregarded 
opinions.  What  a  ludicrous  sight  it  would  be,  say  some, 
to  see  Mr.  Yan  Buren  at  the  head  of  the  Whig  party.  Not 
half  so  much  so  as  to  see  General  Taylor  at  the  head  of 
any  political  party.  In  Mr.  Yan  Buren's  case  people 
would  say,  what  a  magnanimous  party  are  the  Whigs. 
They  refuse  to  vote  for  a  man  who  never  was  heard  of  till 
blood  was  to  be  shed.  Who  advised  an  advance  into  his 
neighbor's  territory.  Who  acknowledged  that  he  knows 
nothing  of  civil  affairs.  Who,  if  he  is  elected,  will  be  the 
first  General  ever  seated  in  the  chair  of  state  as  a  reward 
for  aggressive  triumphs.  That  they  have  forgotten  their 
minor  differences,  and  united  upon  a  candidate  whose 
ordinary  policy  had  always  separated  them,  'but  whom, 
when  the  country  is  in  danger,  they  are  willing  to  unite 
upon  as  the  least  obnoxious  of  the  three. 

When  could  men  with  more  safety  or  propriety  aban- 
don their  party  than  those  who  adhere  to  Whig  principles  ? 
They  could  not  hazard  their  fidelity,  for  their  candidate 
has  no  right  to  exact  what  he  does  not  observe.  A  par- 
tisan is  not  to  be  censured  for  abandoning  a  candidate  who 
represents  nothing,  when  his  party  have  set  him  the 
example  of  ingratitude  by  rejecting  their  greatest  states- 


156  SPEECH  BEFORE   THE 

man,  on  whom  all  the  burthen  of  supporting  their  cause 
eventually  falls.  The  country,  which  is  the  great  object 
of  the  honest  partisan's  efforts,  will  not  be  injured  by 
secession,  for  it  is  happily  accommodating  itself  to  demo- 
cratic measures.  The  tariff  sleeps  in  the  security  of  a 
moderate  reduction.  The  question  of  the  distribution  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  is  as  quiet  as  the  solitudes 
which  it  embraces.  The  bank  is  quietly  crumbling  amid 
the  rest  of  the  ruins  of  Whig  policy ;  and  in  the  certainty 
of  a  secure,  prosperous  financial  policy,  when  could  we 
more  opportunely  begin  the  purgation  of  the  public  morals  ? 

I  am  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  arraying  the  people's 
duties  against  the  people's  favorites.  I  know  the  hope- 
lessness of  calling  the  elector  away  from  the  worshipper. 
Strong  indeed  must  be  that  logic  which  can  wrestle  with 
a  soldier's  glory.  Bold  as  the  courage  which  produced 
that  soldier's  renown,  must  be  the  spirit  that  dares  oppose 
it.  General  Taylor's  talents  may  be  as  lofty  as  the  station 
to  which  he  aspires,  and  his  estimate  of  those  talents  may 
be  as  humble  as  the  obscurity  from  which  he  sprung,  yet 
let  him  wait  till  he  has  proved,  in  some  less  important 
station,  that  he  has  them,  and  let  him  convince  us  of 
his  modesty  in  some  more  satisfactory  manner  than  by 
consenting  to  assume  what  he  acknowledges  he  cannot 
perform.  The  state  wants  experience,  not  experiments. 
Reward  men  for  what  they  will  be,  when  you  have  none 
to  honor  for  what  they  have  been. 

"What  right  have  we  to  look  towards  an  inexperienced 
chieftain  for  a  sagacious  exercise  of  the  vast  executive 
influence  of  this  republic  ?  If  he  is  independent,  that  in- 
experience will  mislead  him.  If  he  is  confiding,  he  will 
be  distracted  by  opposing  counsels.  In  either  case  the 
country  must  be  the  sufferer.  The  world  has  taught  us  to 
distrust  the  wisdom  of  the  sword.  The  saojacitv  which 


15TH   WARD   FREE   SOIL   LEAGUE.  157 

conducted  an  army  to  victory,  has  often  led  a  state  to 
ruin.  Look  at  Napoleon,  with  all  the  power  of  Europe  at 
his  feet,  and  all  the  wisdom  of  France  at  his  ear,  whose 
arm  was  constantly  called  upon  to  repair  the  mischiefs  his 
head  had  provoked,  stepping  down  from  the  most  splendid 
throne  in  the  universe,  and  wading  through  Russian  snows 
to  an  English  prison.  The  most  ungrateful  act  that  ever 
English  gratitude  perpetrated  towards  a  great  name,  was 
in  placing  Wellington  at  the  head  of  the  English  govern- 
ment. "Who  would  believe  that  he  who  utters  such  silly 
sophisms  in  the  House  of  Lords,  was  the  conqueror  of 
Napoleon  ?  That  he  who  contributed  so  much  to  the 
nation's  glory  was  so  little  able  to  benefit  it  by  his  coun- 
sels ?  Yet,  in  battle  he  was  equally  as  masterly  in  his 
plans,  clear,  shrewd,  determined,  as  General  Taylor. 
Military  men  are  generally  too  ignorant  to  lead,  or  too 
obstinate  to  follow,  and  we  do  not  see  why  men  who  have 
had  no  other  training  in  any  other  school,  should  be  an 
exception.  Washington  and  Jackson  were  both  men  who 
had  acquired  much  civil  experience  before  coming  to  the 
Presidency.  Will  General  Taylor  keep  us  out  of  a  foreign 
war  ?  His  poor  neglected  brother-in-arms,  General  Scott, 
has  just  successfully  concluded  one,  which  the  advice  of 
this  General  Taylor  produced.  Will  he  be  guarded  and 
able  to  command  himself  in  power  ?  He  could  not  contain 
his  temper  towards  his  superior,  the  Secretary  of  War ; 
how  will  he  act  then,  when  there  are  none  above  him  ? 

But  in  regard  to  the  war,  he  only  obeyed  orders.  Yes, 
and  he  advised  those  orders,  and  if  he  did  not,  when  was 
obedience  to  error  a  qualification*  for  office  ?  When  was 
participation  in  the  worst  of  iniquities  an  argument  for  the 
assumption  of  the  highest  of  dignities  ?  As  a  soldier  he 
cannot  be  praised  too  much,  though  in  a  bad  cause.  We 
have  spent  200,000,000  of  dollars  to  tell  the  world  two 


158  SPEECH   BEFORE    THE 

facts  : — That  our  soldiers  are  no  cowards  and  our  rulers  no 
statesmen.  That  if  the  one  never  march  but  to  conquer, 
the  others  have  acted  but  to  blunder.  That  while  igno- 
rance at  Washington  was  writing  its  way  to  infamy,  valor 
in  Mexico  was  cutting  its  way  to  glory.  General  Taylor 
performed  a  soldier's  duty,  and  obtained  a  soldier's  reward 
— promotion  and  the  praise  of  the  achievement.  But 
when  he  comes  before  the  country  as  an  aspirant  for  civil 
and  political  honors,  he  must  be  adjudged  by  the  laws  of 
morality  and  good  policy  which  govern  these  dignities — 
and  they  are  against  him.  The  Whigs  tell  us  that  he  will 
not  veto  the  Wilmot  proviso.  Let  us  hear  that  from  him. 
He  is  either  opposed  to  it,  or  ashamed  to  advocate  it.  In 
either  case  he  is  not  worthy  of  our  support.  Yet  with  all 
these  arguments  in  our  favor,  men  excuse  themselves  for 
standing  aloof  from  us.  It's  all  revenge,  you  don't  mean 
it. — Granted  we  do  not,  does  that  justify  you  in  not  em- 
bracing a  good  cause,  because  there  are  those  in  it  who 
avenge  the  wrongs  of  the  politician,  by  performing  the 
duties  of  the  Christian  ?  Were  we  ambitious  of  power  and 
reckless  of  the  means  of  obtaining  it,  how  could  it  be 
better  secured  than  by  coalescing  with  them,  whom  per- 
haps it  has  cost  us  our  ascendency  to  abjure  ?  Could  we 
not  have  swallowed  the  insult  which  denied  us  a  participa- 
tion in  the  selection  of  a  candidate,  in  the  hopes  of  that 
patronage  which  would  have  resulted  from  the  certainty 
of  his  election  ?  Would  not  injuries  forgotten  at  Baltimore 
have  insured  favors  at  Washington? 

Had  we  frowned  upon  the  Wilmot  proviso,  would  not 
success  have  smiled  upon  us,  and  our  integrity,  though  in 
ruins,  been  gilded  by  the  beams  of  perpetuated  power? 
Was  it  good  policy  to  hazard  our  own  safety  as  the  price 
of  their  retribution  ?  To  jeopardize  our  character  in  order 
to  justify  our  position?  Does  it  betray  the  ordinary 


15TH   WARD   FREE    SOIL    LEAGUE.  159 

cunning  of  systematic  vindictiveness  to  incur  all  the  odium 
of  opposition  to  former  friends  without  the  right  to  expect 
anything  from  those  whom  we  benefited  by  this  movement 
and  who  have  always  been  our  enemies  ?  Are  not  these 
the  arguments  with  which  a  calculating  rancor  would 
have  silenced  the  voice  of  a  heedless,  clamorous  retaliation, 
and  thus  preserve  us  from  becoming  martyrs  to  our  own 
resentment  rather  than  what  we  are,  the  vindicators  of 
outraged  party  privileges  and  menaced  public  virtue  ? 

Long-  drawn  and  deeply  indented  are  the  lines  between 
us  and  reconciliation  with  those  who  have  provoked  the 
alternative  of  this  secession  ;  lines  as  wide  as  the  continent 
we  inhabit,  and  deep  as  the  waters  which  wash  its  borders. 
"We  have  harbored  an  outlaw  from  the  capitol,  and  we 
will  not  betray  it ;  we  have  taken  a  great  truth  by  the 
hand  and  sent  it  forth  to  fight  its  way  to  empire.  It  is 
already  crowned  in  the  consciences  of  men.  The  "Whigs 
tell  us  that  for  twenty  years  they  have  been  the  advocates 
of  the  Free  Soil  question ; — what  a  lucky  thing  for  them 
that  the  rent  in  our  own  party  should  have  revealed  to  the 
world  their  long-curtained  virtue, — if  we  effect  nothing 
else  by  this  insular  organization  we  shall  be  more  than 
compensated  for  our  pains. 

Suppose  the  fathers  of  the  Kevolution  had  only  thought 
of  liberty  seventy  years  ago,  without  arming  themselves 
in  its  defence,  what  would  have  been  the  value  of  our 
rights  ?  It  is  not  enough  that  we  are  persecuted  for  what 
we  espouse,  but  we  must  be  plundered  of  that  which  is  all 
that  consoles  us  under  the  infliction.  Do  the  Whigs  mean 
that  they  supported  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  ? 
Is  it  possible  that  they  should  have  countenanced  that 
measure  before  they  were  recognized  as  a  party  ?  But  I 
forgot.  Mr.  "Webster,  who  explained  so  convincingly  how 
we,  a  party  in  a  flourishing  condition,  did  not  exist,  may 


ICO  SPEECH  BEFORE   THE 

perhaps  be  equally  as  lucid  in  settling  how  the  Whigs  could 
have  a  creed  before  they  were  endowed  with  a  being. 
This  compromise  is  the  principle  of  the  proviso  admitted, 
though  partially  applied ;  it  is  the  gravity  of  truth 
suspended  in  its  southward  course;  the  diameter  of  the 
republic  is  made  the  boundary  of  the  benefit;  but  the 
Wilmot  proviso  is  the  compromise  winged,  soaring  and 
lighting  over  the  neglected  residue  of  the  whole  national 
territory.  Can  a  party  long  remain  unacknowledged  and 
unsupported,  who  have  placed  themselves  at  issue  upon 
the  only  principle  worth  contending  for  at  this  election  ? 
"We  will  not  believe  that  the  state,  like  Lot's  wife,  will 
look  back,  and  become  a  pillar  of  salt.  Yet  if  we  should 
fail,  if  we  do  fall,  we  will  go  down  with  the  wreck  of  the 
laws ;  we  will  be  buried  in  the  sarcophagus  of  the  Consti- 
tution ;  the  robes  of  justice  will  be  our  winding-sheet,  and 
every  good  man  our  pall  bearer,  while,  as  triumphant 
infamy  hurries  us  to  the  grave,  the  world  will  cry  out : 
"  there  goes  the  funeral  of  America's  virtue !  "  Yet  we  will 
not  indulge  in  so  mournful  an  anticipation ;  we  are  too 
proud  of  the  past  to  despair  of  the  future ;  we  have  en- 
countered and  survived  too  many  dangers  in  the  building 
up  of  this  splendid  system  of  government,  not  to  be  equally 
sanguine  of  a  like  happy  conclusion  to  our  difficulties.  As 
for  the  South,  her  threatenings  have  been  so  constant  and 
yet  so  harmless,  that  we  would  bear  with  her  as  with  a 
fretful,  wayward  child.  The  country  has  become  used  to 
her  winnings,  and  the  voice  of  threats,  commencing  with 
the  Washington  administration,  have  continued,  with  little 
interval,  down  to  the  present  time ;  but  the  terrors  of  the 
child  are  no  longer  the  arguments  of  the  man ;  we  laugh 
where  in  earlier  days  we  trembled.  This  measure  will 
yet  be  her  master,  and  though,  as  we  journey  toward  the 
far  limits  of  this  vast  empire,  we  encounter  on  our  path 


15TH    WARD   FREE    SOIL   LEAGUE.  161 

the  tree  of  virtue  blown  down  and  stretching  its  withered 
branches  over  the  whole  Southern  extent  of  this  confed- 
eracy, yet  we  will  pluck  a  bough  from  its  prostrate  trunk 
and  transplant  it  upon  the  soil  of  the  national  territory, 
where  it  will  strike  its  roots  so  deep  and  strong  that  all 
the  blasts  of  a  future  corrupt  State  sovereignty  will  sweep 
harmlessly  over  it. 

Pass  this  measure  and  an  angel  might  envy  its  mission, 
for  it  is  the  spirit  which  made  us  free,  trying  to  keep  us 
just.  It  would  snatch  a  kindly  beam  from  the  sun  of 
power,  to  play  upon  the  pathway  of  the  degenerate 
African.  Pass  it,  and  no  more  will  envy  taunt  you  with 
inconsistency,  for  it  is  the  tear  of  the  penitent  blotting  out 
the  sins  of  the  delinquent.  Pass  it,  for  God's  sake,  pass 
it,  and  the  prosperity  of  this  land  will  no  longer  be  a  re- 
proach upon  its  humanity,  for  it  is  the  fortunes  of  one  race 
repairing  the  ruins  of  another.  Our  privileges  have  made 
our  opinions  valuable.  "Within  the  circuit  of  those  opinions 
the  Constitution  has  imprisoned  the  powers  of  the  State, 
and  it  remains  for  you  to  prove  whether  that  act  was  a 
wise  provision  or  a  rash  adventure.  From  the  merciless 
peltings  of  this  southerly  storm,  its  perilled  prerogatives 
seek  a  shelter  under  the  wing  of  your  suffrages.  Deeply 
indeed  must  the  free  soil  voter  feel  the  weight  of  that 
suffrage,  when  in  its  folds  are  wrapped  his  country's  honor 
and  his  fellow's  right. 

"We  have  proved  that  crowns  are  not  essential  to 
laws ;  let  us  prove  also  that  chains  are  not  necessary  to 
labor.  That  as  our  government  has  all  the  energy  with- 
out the  oppression  of  despotism,  so  industry  can  be  equallv 
as  useful  without  being  miserable.  Better  that  liberty 
had  always  remained  a  beautiful  theory  than  to  have  be- 
come a  deformed  and  degraded  reality,  stalking  over  this 
continent  to  degrade  labor,  to  oppress  misfortune,  and  to 
11 


162  SPEECH    BEFORE   THE   FREE    SOIL   LEAGUE. 

prevent  morality.  We  expect  much  of  the  coming  session, 
if  not  of  consummation,  at  least  of  encouragement.  We 
are  prepared  for  a  winter's  voyage  around  this  Southern 
cape ;  it  may  be  a  long  and  boisterous  passage,  but  we 
shall  weather  the  Horn.  We  will  be  the  first  to  bear  the 
glad  tidings  of  redemption  to  the  new-born  empire  of  the 
Pacific,  and  it  will  be  a  more  precious  cargo  than  the 
richest  clime  will  send  them  in  the  proudest  days  of  its 
future  glory,  for  it  will  proclaim  the  unqualified,  uncom- 
promising recognition  of  the  spirit  of  human  liberty. 


ORA.TION 

DELIVEEED  AT 

BERGEN    POINT,   N.  J., 

JULY  4TH,  1845. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

THE  story  of  our  country's  wrongs,  its  sufferings  and 
its  triumphs,  though  often  and  eloquently  told,  is  still  a 
theme  that  cannot  weary — it  is  a  tale  that  must  not  be 
forgotten.  Though  we  shared  not  in  the  glory  of  the 
achievement ;  though  we  perilled  neither  life  nor  limb  in 
the  defence  of  man's  dearest  blessing ;  though  we  had  no 
hand  in  rearing  the  complicated  fabric  of  a  mighty  Re- 
public, still,  to  those  who  accomplished  all  this,  should  we 
not  evince  our  gratitude  by  a  lively  remembrance  of  their 
virtues,  and  by  a  faithful  guardianship  over  those  liberties 
which  they  lavished  their  blood  and  treasure  to  secure  ? 
to  whose  resolution  we  are  indebted  for  the  festivities  of 
this  day,  and  to  whose  valor  and  wisdom  we  owe  the 
success  of  this  age  ?  Bear  with  me,  then,  while,  upon  the 
Sabbath-day  of  our  freedom,  I  discharge,  in  your  name, 
the  annual  debt  of  our  common  gratitude.  Come  with  me 
to  the  altar  of  patriotism,  while  we  offer  up  the  incense  of 
heartfelt  praise  to  the  authors  of  our  country's  glory.  Let 


164  ORATION    DELIVERED    AT 

us  assemble  around  the  table  of  Memory,  and  while  we 
banquet  upon  the  good  deeds  of  others,  may  we  grow  good 
ourselves  by  that  on  which  we  feed.  Why  are  the  reminis- 
cences of  the  Revolution  so  pleasing  ?     "Why  is  it  that  the 
jubilee  of  our  Independence,  like  some  antique  relic,  grows 
dearer  as  it  grows  older  ?     Do  we  merely  commemorate 
the  transfer  of  Governmental  cares  and  burthens  from  a 
foreign  to  a  domestic  head  ?     Do  we  merely  rejoice  that  a 
courageous  ancestry  dared  to  pluck  the  brightest  jewel 
from  a  vain  monarch's  diadem  ?     Are  we  tickled  with  the 
childish  pleasure  of  escaping  the  restraints  of  parental 
discipline  and  the  unnatural  rigors  of  parental  authority  ? 
Do  we  merely  honor  men  for  resisting  when  they  could 
no  longer  obey  ?     Was  it  a  mark  of  magnanimity,  or  any 
evidence  of  patriotism,  in  the  leaders  of  that  contest  to 
defend  what  it  was  their  interest  to  preserve ;  to  exert 
their  intellects,  to  weary  their  spirits,  and  to  task  their 
bodies,   in  order  to  consummate   an  event  which    but 
furnished  the  readier  means  to  gratify  personal  ambition, 
and  to  increase  individual  power  ?     Who  knew  but  what 
they  were  asserting  the  rights  of  their  countrymen  only 
that  they  might,  with  the  more  facility,  abuse  them? 
Who  knew  but  what  they  were  expelling  the  oppressor, 
only  that  they  might  rule  the  oppressed?     How  many 
ambitious  spirits,  masked  in  the  garb  of  patriotism  and 
clothed  in  the  panoply  of  a  sacred  cause,  have  battled  in 
the  name  of  Freedom,  that  they  might  govern  in  the  name 
of  Tyranny !     How  many  deluded  nations  have  succeeded 
in  rearing  the  Temple  of  Liberty,  and  yet  how  few  have 
feasted  their  eyes  upon  the  fair  spectacle,  ere  vice  and 
corruption,  undermining  the  beautiful  edifice,  have  erected, 
upon  its  crumbling  ruins,  the  sternest  despotism  that  human 
ingenuity  could  devise !     No,  my  friends,  it  is  neither  the 
spirit  that  provoked,  nor  the  ability  that  achieved  this 


BERGEN    POINT,    N.    J.,    1845.  165 

revolution,  upon  which  we  waste  the  eulogy  of  our  praise ; 
it  is  the  wisdom  that  planned,  the  virtue  that  preserved, 
and  the  integrity  that  bequeathed  to  us  that  sacred  charter, 
without  which  all  revolutions  are  vain,  and  submission 
preferable  to  resistance.  It  was  this  disinterestedness,  this 
patriotic  devotion  to  posterity  and  their  country,  that  dis- 
tinguished our  ancestors  from  the  vulgar  herd  of  mere 
revolutionists.  With  them,  place  and  power  were  only 
instruments  to  effect  national  independence  and  individual 
prosperity.  For  our  rest  they  labored ;  for  our  peace  they 
warred ;  for  our  freedom  they  conquered.  And  when  a 
kind  Providence,  a  worthy  cause,  and  an  undaunted  spirit, 
had  enabled  them  to  secure  the  adoption  of  those  demo- 
cratic institutions  contended  for,  they  drop,  one  by  one, 
from  the  high  places  to  which  their  merits  had  exalted 
them,  to  mingle  with  a  multitude  they  had  redeemed,  to 
watch  the  operations  of  a  Government  they  had  constituted, 
to  share  in  its  blessings,  and,  by  exemplifying  in  themselves 
its  equality,  to  enjoy  that  living  Apotheosis,  the  reward 
of  virtue  and  the  result  of  patriotism. 

There  is  a  distinctness  of  feature,  a  peculiar  originality 
of  character,  exhibited  in  the  nature  and  origin  of  this 
Revolution,  to  which  history  furnishes  no  parallel ;  and 
the  oftener  we  reflect,  and  the  deeper  we  study  both  its 
causes  and  its  results,  the  firmer  will  be  the  conviction 
that  a  mightier  hand  than  man's,  a  keener  eye  than  ours, 
had  marked  out,  guided,  and  still  watches  the  destinies  of 
this  young  Republic.  A  few  generations  since,  and  the 
land  we  inhabit  found  not  a  place  in  the  imagination  of 
the  wildest  visionary.  History  refused  it  a  page  upon  her 
tablets ;  and  when  civilized  man  beheld  the  sun  sinking  in 
the  distant  west,  he  fancied  that  it  but  slept  upon  the 
bosom  of  the  boundless  waters,  unconscious  that  the  mighty 
orb  smiled  upon  and  vivified  a  world  as  vast,  a  land  as 


166  ORATION    DELIVERED    AT 

beautiful,  and  a  people  as  mortal  as  liis  own.  Crowded 
within  the  narrow  compass  of  a  limited  territory — pros- 
trated by  the  weight  of  monarchical  exactions,  and  the 
mental  despotism  of  a  crafty  priesthood — almost  exhausted 
in  physical  resources  by  the  constant  drain  of  an  excessive 
populace,  Europe  knew  not  that  a  mighty  hemisphere  was 
waiting  to  pour  its  treasures  in  her  lap — to  afford  an  asylum 
for  her  oppressed  and  a  home  for  her  surplus  multitude ; 
thus  restoring  the  fulcrum  to  the  centre  of  an  overbalanced 
globe,  and  applying  to  us  the  Bible  promise,  "  I  will  give 
thee  the  heathen  for  an  inheritance."  But  who  is  the 
leader  to  this  promised  land  ?  Who  the  Moses  to  this 
second  Canaan?  A  friendless  mariner,  whose  character 
is  as  doubtful  as  the  countries  he  would  discover,  but 
whose  project  seemed  little  less  than  a  divine  inspiration. 
With  a  boldness  equal  to  the  magnitude  of  the  under- 
taking, he  looks  the  haughtiest  of  sovereigns  in  the  face, 
and  for  the  trifle  of  an  outfit,  offers  to  lay  the  wealth  of 
another  Indus  at  his  feet.  Doubting,  and  yet  hoping, 
they  equip  him  a  fleet,  in  which  your  watermen  would 
hardly  trade  to  Virginia.  And  yet  there  is  a  sublimity 
in  that  departure  which  one  loves  to  contemplate.  Pitied 
for  his  madness,  ridiculed  for  his  rashness,  despised  for  his 
obstinacy,  with  no  encouragement,  save  the  instinctive 
promptings  of  an  ardent  imagination,  this  adventurous 
nobody  launches  upon  the  Atlantic's  wide  waste,  to  im- 
mortalize an  obscure  name,  to  enrich  an  ungrateful  coun- 
try, and  to  prepare  a  road  that  ransomed  millions  might 
follow.  Historians  tell  us  that  a  redeemed  people  date 
their  existence  from  the  year  1776 ;  but  the  world  will 
acknowledge,  that  the  first  link  in  the  great  chain  of 
events,  which  ended  with  the  consummation  of  American 
Independence,  was  commenced  in  the  year  1492. 

Had  a  Columbus  never  lived,  tyranny  would   have 


BERGEN   POINT,    N.    J.,    1845.  167 

never  died.  Europe,  the  alpha  and  omega  of  Christian 
civilization,  would  have  been  the  centre  of  a  universal 
despotism,  and  man  still  crouched  beneath  the  rod  of 
power,  sometimes  kissing,  but  never  escaping  the  hand 
that  held  him.  The  splendor  of  a  throne,  the  pomp  and 
state  of  royalty,  the  gorgeous  trappings,  and  lavish  dis- 
play of  aristocratic  wealth,  dazzle  the  senses  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  are  peculiar  objects  of  admiration  and  worship. 
Accustomed  from  infancy  to  regard  these  privileged  orders 
as  superior  beings,  they  may  envy,  but  are  always  ready 
to  fawn  at  the  feet  of  power.  It  is  only  in  a  land  far  re- 
moved from  such  influences,  whose  crown  is  wisdom, 
whose  mitre  is  purity,  whose  heraldry  is  talent,  where  an 
equality  of  rank  produces  an  equality  of  rights,  that  man 
can  fully  assert  the  dignity  of  his  nature,  and  enjoy  free- 
dom in  its  true  purity.  Thus,  while  other  nations  have 
been  for  ages  endeavoring  to  wring  a  few  immunities  from 
their  masters,  we,  in  less  than  a  century,  have  sprung  to 
the  manly  stature  of  freemen — the  land  of  yesterday,  and 
the  people  of  to-day — the  youngest  in  years,  and  yet  the 
oldest  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  true  essentials  of  good 
government.  "What  a  pattern  do  we  present  for  oar  elders ! 
"What  an  example  does  the  child  hold  up  to  the  parent ! 
Liberty,  with  our  ancestors,  was  a  runaway  match.  The 
gentle  goddess  came  to  their  mother's  house,  and  pleased 
them  with  her  mildness  and  the  unrestrained  ease  of  her 
manners.  The  parents  perceived  the  attachment  spring- 
ing up,  and,  with  cruel  severity,  forbade  the  banns.  Not 
to  be  deterred  even  by  this  obstacle,  they  clandestinely 
leave  the  paternal  roof,  and  consummate,  in  the  wilds  of 
America,  that  union  denied  them  at  home — sealing  the 

*  O 

matrimonial  bond  with  their  blood,  and  testing,  by  their 
sufferings,  the  strength  of  their  attachment — preferring  a 
stormy  sea,  a  forest-wild,  a  savage  foe,  to  all  the  allure- 


168  ORATION   DELIVERED   AT 

ments  of  a  home,  whose  Church  was  Bigotry  and  whose 
State  was  Tyranny.  Is  it  to  be  wondered,  then,  that  after 
encountering  every  peril  and  surmounting  every  obstacle, 
after  raising  their  altars  to  that  piety  for  which  they  had 
sacrificed  so  much,  and  after  transplanting  their  vine  and 
fig-tree  far  from  the  scenes  of  their  childhood  and  those 
beloved  ties  which  consecrate  the  domestic  hearth, — is  it 
to  be  wondered,  I  say,  that  when  the  destroyer  comes, 
backed  by  the  scalping  Indian,  to  invade  the  sanctity  of  a 
retreat  he  had  rendered  necessary,  that  they  should  exhibit 
the  same  courage  in  defending  a  land  which  insured  them 
the  enjoyment  of  so  many  blessings,  as  they  had  in  leaving 
one  which  denied  them  all — thus  rising  from  the  equi- 
vocal character  of  rebellious  subjects  to  the  conscious 
dignity  of  victorious  freemen — and,  in  place  of  obscure 
colonists,  unnoticed  by  the  world,  suddenly  take  their 
stand  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to  rival,  and  perhaps 
eclipse,  the  glory  of  their  once  lordly  masters  ?  Thus,  with 
nations  as  with  individuals,  does  heaven  make  one  the 
unwilling  instrument  of  another's  rise. 

The  principle  of  democratic  liberty,  though  intimately 
connected  with  the  well-being  of  mankind,  seems,  previous 
to  our  Revolution,  to  have  been  a  mere  speculative  theory. 
Philosophy,  with  a  knowing  shake,  denied  that  its  adop- 
tion was  possible,  and  Experience,  with  a  quiet  smile, 
pointed  to  the  decayed  models  of  Greece  and  Home  as 
samples  of  instability.  That  a  whole  nation  should  be  the 
property  of  one  family,  bequeathed  from  father  to  son,  as 
so  many  personal  chattels,  had  long  become  a  fixed  fact ; 
and  it  was  only  when  rash  rulers  innovated  upon  long- 
established  customs,  that  imprisoned  man  forgot  his  chains, 
and  dared  to  strike ;  or,  if  the  progress  of  knowledge  and 
the  dawn  of  an  enlightened  age,  awakened  him  to  a  sense 
of  his  degradation,  the  instruments,  and  not  the  authors, 


BERGEN   POINT,   N.   J.,    1845.  169 

of  his  infamy,  were  the  objects  of  attack — deposing  rulers 
and  slaughtering  kings,  but  leaving  the  law  that  made 
them  unharmed.     And  yet,  civil  liberty  was  as  dear  to 
the  masses  as  power  was  to  the  high-born :  no  matter  how 
sunk  in  ignorance,  or  how  debased  by  vice ;  no  matter 
how  indistinct  or  how  ill-digested  the  ideas,  man  still  re- 
tains some  notion  of  his  rights  and  obligations  as  a  social 
being.     Compelled  by  his  weakness,  and  attracted  by  his 
affections,  to  associate  with  his  fellow,  he  feels  the  necessity 
for  a  restraining  principle  to  curb  the  passions  and  protect 
the  interests  of  society.     Although  wealth  and  intellect  be 
unequally  distributed ;  although  tastes,  habits,  and  associa- 
tions exclude  social  companionship,  still  a  community  of 
interests,  an  aggregate  mutual  dependence  upon   each 
other,  or  reliance  upon,  and  an  accountability  to  the  same 
kind  Protector,  should  at  least  invite  a  political  equality. 
With  his  obligations  to  society,  comes  another  and  a  higher 
duty.    What  he  is  denied  and  what  he  enjoys  from  asso- 
ciation with  man,  concerns  but  his  temporal  and  bodily 
relation.     Whether  he  is  to  be  happy  or  miserable  here- 
after, according  as  he  has  made  his  peace  with  God,  con- 
cerns his  spiritual  and  eternal  welfare.    There  is  some 
palliative  for   Government  interfering  in   the  temporal 
affairs  of  men,  for  they  have  a  bearing  more  or  less  affect- 
ing each  other ;  but  to  tear  the  veil  of  sanctity  from  the 
spirit's  devotion— to  invade  the  temple  of  his  faith,  and 
prescribe  particular  forms  for  his  observance — to  disturb 
the  sacred  communion  of  an  immortal  soul  with  its  master- 
spirit, in  order  to  enjoin  any  rules  other  than  those  con- 
tained in  the  inspired  volume,  is  not  only  an  outrage  upon 
his  feelings,  but  a  sacrilege  against  his  Maker.     In  society, 
man  is  but  the  integral  part  of  a  congregated  mass,  depen- 
dent upon,  and  affected  by,  whatever  concerns  it  as  a 
whole.     In  religion,  he  is  the  one  independent  being,  in 


170  ORATION   DELIVERED    AT 

no  way  connected  with  his  neighbor,  and,  although  haying 
a  common  origin,  and  liable  to  a  common  fate,  yet  inde- 
pendent in  existence,  independent  in  action,  and  indepen- 
dent in  accountability. 

To  appreciate  properly  the  blessings  we  enjoy,  to 
comprehend  fully  the  causes  which,  in  so  brief  a  period, 
have  effected  so  much  for  us  politically,  let  us  review  the 
condition  of  some  of  the  older  nations  of  Europe,  who  have 
but  survived  the  ferocity  of  barbaric  times  to  become  the 
victims  to  enlightened  prejudices.  Is  there  any  real  free- 
dom to  be  found  among  those  petty  republics  scattered  at 
intervals  over  Europe,  like  stagnant  pools  in  a  desert, 
which,  instead  of  allaying,  rather  excite  the  thirst  for  a 
purer  element — holding  their  charter  at  the  will  of  some 
foreign  potentate,  or,  at  best,  shaping  their  conduct  as 
conduces  most  towards  retaining  the  good-will  of  their 
most  powerful  neighbors  ?  England,  a  modern  Colossus, 
ruling  the  waves  with  her  trident,  her  freeholds  with  gold, 
her  colonies  with  bayonets — whose  power  no  arm  can 
weaken,  whose  influence  every  nation  will  acknowledge, 
whose  good-will  all  gladly  court.  Though  the  scene  of  an 
hundred  rebellions,  and  the  theatre  of  many  revolutions  ; 
though  her  hills  have  echoed  with  the  thrilling  cries  of 
would-be  freemen,  and  her  green  vales  have  drank  the 
blood  of  her  best  and  wisest  heroes ;  though  every  age 
weakens  her  power  at  home  and  adds  her  might  abroad, 
in  what  consists  the  boasted  liberties  of  Englishmen  ? 
Since  the  Invasion  to  the  deposition  of  the  Elder  Stuarts, 
what  advances  have  they  made  towards  political  regenera- 
tion ?  The  boundaries  of  the  kingly  office  are  more  clearly 
defined.  The  crown  prerogatives  are  reduced  to  a  mere 
routine  of  state  ceremonies.  The  checks  and  balances  of 
three  independent  orders  in  the  State,  each  a  guard  upon 
the  other,  present  a  seeming  equality  of  representation 


BEEGEN   POINT,    N.    J.,    1845.  171 

that  does  not  exist.  "What  the  king  has  lost  in  honor,  the 
nobility  have  acquired  in  influence,  and  what  the  people 
have  gained  by  a  voice  in  the  democratic  branch,  is  hushed 
by  the  corruptions  of  the  remaining  two ;  and  so  long  as 
they  love  their  rulers,  and  only  hate  their  rule — so  long  as 
that  passion  for  display  and  attachment  to  royalty  still  re- 
mains— so  long  as  they  writhe  under  the  lash  that  stings, 
and  yet  admire  the  jeweled  hand  that  wields  the  rod,  so 
long  will  the  day  of  their  redemption  be  prolonged. 

The  French,  awakened  to  a  spirit  of  independence  by 
the  radical  tendency  of  their  new  philosophy — inflamed 
almost  to  madness  by  the  oppressive  exactions  of  their 
privileged  orders,  and  stimulated  to  a  like  effort  by  our 
example,  fondly  imagined  they  would  be  equally  success- 
ful. But  unfortunately  departing  from  that  courtesy  for 
which  they  are  noted,  like  an  old  man  who,  in  retaining 
the  affections,  loses  the  polish  of  his  youth,  they  woo  the 
timid  goddess  with  so  rough  and  brutal  a  courtship,  that 
she  shrinks  from  their  embraces,  and,  with  a  shriek  of 
horror,  flies  frantic  from  the  land.  Then  follows  the  strife 
of  contending  passions,  the  downfall  of  the  holy  altar,  the 
debauch  of  public  morals,  and  a  general  prostration  of  the 
social  fabric— bartering  a  mild  tyranny  for  a  terrible 
anarchy,  and  the  sway  of  a  gentle  monarch  for  the  bloody 
rule  of  a  Jacobinical  mob.  Brood  after  brood  of  gloomy 
tyrants  are  fostered  upon  the  land,  until  one  giant-monster, 
mightier  than  all,  rises  at  the  moment  of  his  country's 
deepest  misery,  to  exalt  her  to  the  highest  pitch  of  national 
glory.  Here  let  us  pause  to  contemplate  the  character  of 
two  men,  perhaps  the  greatest  that  ever  impressed  their 
genius  upon  any  age.  WASHINGTON  and  NAPOLEON  !  The 
sun  of  America's  savior,  rising  in  black  clouds  of  political 
despotism,  culminates  to  its  zenith  during  the  mists  of  a 
nation's  uncertain  struggles,  but,  slowly  declining  amid  a 


172  ORATION   DELIVERED   AT 

golden  blaze  of  victorious  conflict,  tinges  the  western 
horizon  with  the  mild  splendor  of  its  virtues  long  after  the 
orb  itself  had  ceased  to  shine.  While  an  admiring  world 
is  lost  in  contemplating  the  beauty  of  this  scene,  a  new 
sun  is  visible  to  the  eastward ;  its  brilliant  dawn,  the 
wonder  and  delight  of  an  age — its  meridian  beams,  too 
dazzling  for  the  eagle's  gaze — its  declining  pathway,  too 
tempestuous  for  the  stormy-petrel's  revel.  Nature  denied 
their  births  a  kingly  heritage,  and  yet  both  attained  heights 
to  which  kings  in  vain  aspire.  Each  originated  in  revolu- 
tionary convulsions,  which  neither  created,  but  which  both 
concluded.  The  one  annihilating  foreign  domination,  the 
other  quelling  domestic  faction.  Both  arranged  and 
harmonized  discordant  masses — infusing  into  separate 
systems  of  governments  a  wisdom  that  equalized,  and  an 
energy  that  ensured  the  enjoyment  of  every  political 
advantage.  Thus  far  they  are  hand-in-hand — and  posterity 
will  blend  their  names  in  the  common  benefactions  of  two 
great  nations.  But  here,  too,  they  part :  Washington  to 
lay  his  power  at  the  feet  of  its  legitimate  source,  the 
People ;  Napoleon  to  wrest  from  his  countrymen  all  they 
had  not  previously  conceded.  Washington's  ambition  is 
satiated  with  the  happiness  he  had  secured ;  Napoleon's 
thirst  for  pow'er — the  blood  of  three  millions  could  not 
quench.  Yirtue,  thriving  in  a  land  of  liberty,  brought  to 
the  dying  bed  of  Washington  the  consciousness  of  a  well- 
spent  life,  while  the  murmuring  paeans  of  a  grateful  nation 
sang  the  hero  to  a  sweet  repose.  Ambition,  swayed  by 
matchless  talents,  dazzling  the  world  while  it  exasperated 
its  victims,  confused  the  brain  of  Napoleon,  expiring  upon 
a  captive's  couch.  In  the  heroes'  deaths  we  read  their 
lives.  But  if  both  have  produced  great  physical  results, 
the  effect  of  their  example  will  not  be  the  least  among  the 
benefits  conferred  upon  society.  The  one,  a  warning  to 


BERGEN   POINT,    N.    J.,    1845.  173 

posterity  never  to  permit  services,  however  valuable,  or 
endowments,  however  rare,  to  seduce  them  into  the  relin- 
quishment  of  powers  for  the   benefit  of  an  individual, 
which  should  alone  emanate  from  the  bosom  of  society ; 
and  to  tyrants,  the  fact  that  however  successful  for  a  time 
may  be  the  efforts  of  caballing  ambition,  yet  the  betrayal 
of  a  nation's  trusts  must  result  eventually  in  the  with- 
drawal of  that  nation's  support.     America,  happy  in  the 
possession  of  her  liberties,  but  thrice  blessed  in  the  rich 
legacy  of  her  Washington's  virtues,  will  ever  cherish  them 
as  a  model  for  generous   emulation,  and  as  a  standing 
monument  to  the  triumph  of  all  that  is  disinterested  in 
patriotism,  over  the  retention  of  that  power  which  the 
confiding  love  of  an  adoring  people  would  have  warranted. 
While  we  pay  our  tribute  to  the  good  and  brave  of 
other  days ;  while  we  linger  around  the  green  graves  of 
those  who  achieved  our  liberties,  let  us  not  forget  others 
who  successfully  maintained  them  when  again  invaded. 
While  we  raise  the  shout  of  gladness  for  the  results  we 
have  gained,  let  us  drop  the  tear  of  sorrow  for  the  man 
we  have  lost — mingling  the  joyful  emotions,  which  this 
day  awakens,  with  the  solemnities  becoming  the  mournful 
event  which  the  nation  has  so  recently  experienced.     After 
filling  the  latest  page  of  his  country's  history  with  deeds 
of  renown ;  after  taming  the  wild  spirit  of  savage  insubor- 
dination, and  driving  the  trained  bands  of  Europe  from 
the  plains  of  Louisiana ;  after  attacking,  with  the  same 
energy,  the  monster  monopolies  that  had  taken  root  within 
the  body  politic,  and  defending,  with  the  same  spirit,  the 
violated  honor  of  a  land  of  which  he  was  the  conservator ; 
after  encountering,  with  a  like  fortitude,   the  insidious 
attacks  of  malignant  disease,  and  wrestling  with  unsubdued 
obstinacy   against  its  slow,   but  certain,   advances— the 
warrior  statesman — the  patriot  JACKSON — the  man  of  iron 


174  ORATION   DELIVERED   AT 

will,  falls  before  the  fell  destroyer.  God's  the  only  throne 
at  which  he  would  bend ;  Death  the  only  conqueror  to 
whom  he  would  yield — its  sting  soothed  by  the  balm  of 
Christian  hope — its  terrors  hidden  in  the  mantle  of  his 
virtues.  While  a  bereaved  kindred  bear  to  the  tomb  all 
that  remains  of  his  mortality ;  while  a  grief-bowed  people 
weave  funeral  garlands  to  his  memory,  and,  with  solemn 
pageantry,  pay  funeral  rites  to  his  decease,  the  incense  of 
his  virtues  will  rise  higher  and  higher,  until  diffused  far 
and  wide  over  the  land  he  lived  so  long  to  love  and  honor. 
Well  may  America  mourn,  for  she  has  lost  her  best  and 
ablest  champion ;  Liberty,  its  most  ardent  advocate ; 
Democracy,  an  oracle  "  whose  prophecy  was  inspiration," 
and  to  whose  grave  her  votaries  will  repair  as  the  Mecca 
of  their  political  faith  ;  Party,  a  name  whose  magic  wand 
healed  all  differences,  allayed  all  prejudices — whose  voice 
was  oil  to  the  troubled  waters,  and  whose  frown  was  a 
terror  to  faction.  Though  the  breath  of  calumny  sought 
to  poison  the  atmosphere  in  which  he  lived,  it  will  scarce 
breathe  its  venom  upon  the  grave  in  which  he  is  buried—- 
that grave,  the  last  monument  to  departed  glory,  covering 
all  of  him  who  was  the  latest  and  best  of  America's  second 
era.  But  four  years  since,  and  we  were  called  to  mourn 
the  fate  of  the  lamented  HARRISON,  who,  winning  the 
laurel  crown  of  victory  upon  the  bloody  field  of  Indian 
warfare,  a  grateful  nation  sought  to  deck  with  the  insignia 
of  its  highest  civic  office.  Scarce  do  a  victorious  party 
taste  from  his  hands  the  bread  of  patronage,  than,  reeling 
beneath  the  weight  of  accumulated  honors,  he  falls,  bury- 
ing them  with  him  in  the  tomb,  leaving  to  his  country 
but  the  good  he  had  effected,  and  bearing  to  his  Maker 
the  offerings  of  a  believing  and  devoted  heart. 

Is  it  not  pleasing  to  see  a  people,  noted  for  their  party 
spirit,  almost  defacing  their  political  landmarks,  yielding 


BERGEN  POINT,    N.    J.,    1845.  175 

to  the  impulses  of  gratitude,  and  elevating,  as  it  were,  by 
acclamation,  to  the  highest  trusts  in  the  hour  of  their  pros- 
perity, men  who  were  the  first  in  their  defence  when 
doubt  and  danger  hovered  over  the  land  ?    While  we  em- 
balm them  in  our  memories,  and  duly  appreciate  their 
services,  let  us  not  forget  to  keep  a  vigilant  eye  upon  the 
institutions  which  were  the  object  of  them.     Though  to 
our  ancestors  belongs  the  praise  of  founding  a  Eepublic, 
let  us  deserve,  at  least,  the  credit  of  preserving  one.     The 
erection  of  Republics  is  no  new  fact— their  perpetuation, 
both  an  ancient  and  a  modern  rarity.     To  belie  the  experi- 
ence of  the  past,  we  must  profit  by  its  lessons,  and,  in  order 
to  continue  >what  its  teachings  have  procured  us,  we  must 
be  mindful  of  its  warnings,  and  faithfully  pursue  the  line  of 
conduct  marked  out  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution— 
that  Constitution  under  which,  for  more  than  sixty  years, 
we  have  run  the  glorious  race  of  empire ;  dispelling  the 
misty  doubts  of  scepticism ;  quieting  the  anxious  fears  of 
Freedom's  friends   throughout    the  universe;   terrifying 
the  trembling  despot  on  his  throne,  and  awakening  the  long- 
buried  hopes  of  entliralled  millions.     And  though,  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Christian  world,  we  stand 
towering  like  some  vast  column  amid  the  crash  and  ruin 
of  man's  prostrate  rights,  yet  soon  shall  spring  from  these 
scattered  fragments  a  majestic  temple,  so  wide,  so  expan- 
sive, that  emancipated  Christendom,  in  one  congregated 
mass,  may  repose  beneath  its  roof,  never  again  to  bow  in 
homage  to  tyranny  until  they  forget  to  bend  in  reverence 
to  virtue.     As  Heaven,  step  by  step,  unveils  the  mysteries 
of  finite  power  to  the  intellect  of  man,  his  own  right  arm 
will  loose  the  shackles  that  encumber  his  body.  %  Pointing 
to  our  example,  the  struggling  nations  repeat,  in  their  own 
tongues,  the  cheering  language  of  a  freeman's  sympathy. 
Where  Nature,  lonely  and  lovely,  revelled  in  wild  luxuri- 


176  ORATION   DELIVERED   AT 

ancc,  they  see  villages,  cities  and  States,  smiling  into 
being.  Where  barbarous  tribes  roamed  with  ferocious 
boldness,  and  tomahawks  gleamed  over  helpless  innocence, 
they  see  a  people,  by  labor  and  art  adorned,  by  science 
exalted,  by  religion  sanctified,  and  by  liberty  redeemed. 
Rejecting  the  errors,  and  yet  adopting  the  advantages  of 
other  republican  systems,  they  see  a  Government,  more 
perfect  in  its  structure,  more  effective  in  its  operation, 
more  complicated,  and  yet  more  simple — more  divided, 
and  yet  more  united,  than  any  that  has  preceded  it. 
Obeying  a  local,  and  yet  acknowledging  a  national  sover- 
eignty ;  jealous  of  State  rights,  and  yet  when  the  national 
weal  requires,  permitting  the  encroachments  of  the  Federal 
arm,  they  see  a  people  whose  wrongs  are  redressed,  not 
by  marching  with  death-dealing  instruments  to  slaughter 
the  persons  of  their  rulers,  but,  one  by  one,  peaceably 
depositing  at  the  polls  a  simple  ballot,  more  effective  in 
revolutionizing  the  policy  of  their  Government,  and  more 
efficacious  in  healing  their  ills,  than  ten  thousand  muskets 
directed  by  the  most  skilful  generals.  To  the  poor,  it  is  a 
weapon  of  defence  against  the  encroachments  of  power  and 
influence ;  and  to  the  rich,  a  shield  from  the  ultra  tendency 
of  radical  democracy.  In  a  Despotism,  man  has  only  to 
obey;  in  a  Republic,  he  both  commands  and  obeys. 
However,  ignorant,  talent  and  education  receive  their 
political  reward  from  his  hands ;  however  humble,  power 
lives  but  on  his  smile  ;  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  all  are 
alike  recipients  of,  and  dependent  upon,  his  bounty. 
Wielding  with  his  omnipotent  ballot  the  full  portion  of  his 
sovereignty,  he  plucks  from  the  crowd  whom  he  will  to 
rule  over  him,  and,  in  turn,  commands  him  who  went  forth 
to  rule  to  lay  down  his  dignities  at  the  feet  of  the  monarch 
multitude.  Since,  then,  popular  sentiment  constitutes  the 
life-blood  of  the  body  politic,  how  important  it  is  to  guard 


BERGEN   POINT,    N.    J.  177 

.-.« 

from  corrupting  influences  the  veins  and  arteries  of  our 
political  system.  How  necessary  it  is  to  diffuse  through 
all  its  fibres  the  principles  of  a  pure  morality,  spiritualizing 
and  exalting,  rather  than  debasing  and  enervating  the 
minds  of  the  masses — banishing  luxury,  encouraging  in- 
dustry, exciting  patriotic  ardor,  and,  by  our  example, 
tending  to  the  cultivation  of  those  higher  and  better 
sympathies  of  humanity,  which  can  alone  give  permanency 
to  the  institutions  of  a  self-ruled  people.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  longing  after  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  we  adopt  the 
manners  and  ape  the  vices  of  transatlantic  degeneracy, 
woful  experience  will  teach  us  that  our  system  of  govern- 
ment, the  best  ever  devised  for  the  intelligent  and  good,  is 
the  very  worst  to  be  entrusted  to  the  degraded  and 
vicious.  That  mighty  weapon,  the  power  of  suffrage, 
now  the  grand  catholicon  for  all  political  diseases,  will  but 
hasten  the  speedy  dissolution  of  the  once  healthy  fabric. 
Demagogues  will  find  it  easy  to  delude  those  who  have 
deluded  themselves.  The  liberties  of  the  people  will 
finally  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  their  virtues,  and  with 
the  last  dying  shriek  of  departed  freedom,  shall  mingle 
the  exulting  cries  of  a  despot's  minions. 


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